Jérôme Pillement studied with Pierre Dervaux, Sébastien Bereau and Leonard Bernstein, and he was awarded by the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation in 1986. In 1987, he obtains a gold medal in conducting and immediately he conducts orchestras such as Rai in Rome, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Praga Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Picardie, Orchestre national de Montpellier, Solistes de Moscou, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Marseille or Orchestre National Bordeaux-Aquitaine.
He starts to conduct opera in 1992 with La Périchole in Nantes. Since then, he conducted L’isola disabitata and La canterina in Nice, The Merry Widow, Cavalleria rusticana or Le Pays du sourire in Montpellier, La Fille du régiment in Tenerife, Cenerentola in Rouen and Caen, Lloyd Weber’s Requiem in Rouen, Dédé in Rouen and in Paris Opéra Comique, Nozze di Figaro in Compiègne, Pascal Dusapin’s Assai Haro in Montpellier. He created Marius Constant’s Teresa in Rouen and also conducted Massenet’s La Vierge in Marseille.
His career allowed him to conduct various kinds of music all over the world. We heard him in La Jeune fille de Perth in Compiègne, Traviata in Dublin and Montpellier, Trovatore in Montpellier, Damnation de Faust and Bruneau’s Attaque du moulin in Giessen, Rigoletto in Dijon. He also conducted La Mascotte staged by Jérôme Savary or Offenbach’s Les Brigands staged by Jérôme Deschamps.
He conducted in Strasbourg for La Grande duchesse de Gérolstein, L’Amour masqué at the Paris Opéra Comique, Bruneau’s Attaque du moulin in Bern, Roméo et Juliette in Dublin.
In 2002-2003, he is the musical director of the festival Opéra en plein air where he conducts Don Giovanni (staged by Gérard Corbiau) and Nozze di Figaro (staged by Alain Sachs).
Jérôme Pillement still conducts symphonic concerts. He is regularly invited by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestre national de Montpellier, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Orchestre Régional Avignon Provence…
In 2014, amongst others, he conducted Michel Legrand’s creation Dreyfus in Nice, and Don Quichotte in Aarhus Den Jyske Opera in Denmark.
He also created Folies d’O in 2007, an operetta festival in Montpellier where he creates one new production each year. He conducted Offenbach’s Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein, Belle de Cadix, Belle Hélène, Vie Parisienne, then Merry Widow, L’elisir d’amore, West Side Story and Cabaret.
Since 1992, he is the music director of the Festival Un Violon sur le Sable in Royan where he organizes classical concerts each summer for more than 100 000 people.
During the season 2015-2016, Jérôme Pillement will conduct Strauss Fledermaus in Avignon Opera, a new production of La Traviata in Bienne (Swiss) and a new producton of Offenbach Genevieve de Brabant with Opera Junior in Opera national de Montpellier.
Folies Lyriques website
Violon sur le Sable website
Opéra Junior website