Ayrton Desimpelaere conductor
Born in 1990, the Belgian conductor Ayrton Desimpelaere graduated in piano and conducting from the National and Regional Conservatories of Paris and Versailles, and the Royal Conservatories of Brussels and Mons, as well as from the Sorbonne and the ULB in Musicology. Guest conductor since 2017 at the IMEP, he is also professor of orchestra conducting, choral singing and vocal coaching. The young conductor is supported by the Wernaers Fund. In 2017, he received the Lekime Frison and Gerofi Baschwitz Prizes, in 2018, the Maurice Lefranc Prize. In 2016, he joined the Artistic committee of the International André Dumortier Competition.
In June 2015 in Moscow, Ayrton Desimpelaere conducted the orchestra Yury Bashmet’s Moscow Soloists at short notice during the piano semi-final of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. A few months later, the Royal Opera of Wallonia (ORW) hired him for four seasons as assistant conductor and guest conductor.
After conducting Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (young audience) at the ORW, he conducted the world creation of #Folon (Nicola Campogrande) in 2018, Don Quichotte (Massenet/Le Hérisser) in 2019 and Le Petit chaperon rouge (Stefano Guagnini) in 2020. In 2018, he conducted Il Matrimonio segreto by Cimarosa in the staging of Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera. The same year, he conducted two performances of Aïda by Verdi and a performance of Madama Butterfly by Puccini. He conducted the orchestra of the ORW for the Gala concerts of the NILAC in April 2019.
During the 2020-2021 season, he is going to conduct several concerts : the narrative-concert with Alain Duault around the Strauss Family ; the 50th anniversary of the IMEP (superior school of music in Namur) ; Ursule and Irsute (opera for young audience) at the ORW ; a charity concert in the presence of the Belgian Royal Family ; and he’ll conduct the final of the second edition of the Namur International Lyric Art Competition (NILAC)…He’ll assist Speranza Scappucci (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) and Daniel Oren (I Lombardi alla prima Crociata). He regularly works with the orchestra of the ORW. In December, he is invited by the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra for a month of concerts in Ankara (Turkey)
He worked with several conductors and musicians: Speranza Scappucci, Paolo Arrivabeni, Daniel Oren, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Rinaldo Alessandrini, José Cura, Massimo Zanetti, Giampaolo Bisanti, Wolfgang Doerner, Tatiana Samouil, Jodie Devos, Michele Mariotti, Christophe Rousset, Mikhaïl Faerman, Vineta Sareika, Marianne Cornetti, Donata d’Annunzio Lombardi, Marcello Giordani, Sabina Willeit, Jordi Bernacer, Arnold Rawls…
His opera repertoire include: La Bohème, Turandot, Nabucco, Don Giovanni, Orphée aux Enfers, La Damnation de Faust, La Gazetta, Didon et Aenée, Otello, Manon Lescaut, Norma, La Favorite, Rigoletto, Carmen, Le Domino Noir, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Donna del Lago, Macbeth, Il Trovatore, Tosca, Faust, Don Quichotte, Aida, La Clemenza di Tito, I Puritani, Anna Bolena, Le Comte Ory, Madama Butterfly, Orphée et Eurydice, La Cenerentola, Alzira, Don Carlos, La Sonnambula and Lakmé, among others.
He also conducted several works about sacred music: Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’ Requiem and Mass in c minor, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Schubert’s Mass n°5, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Verdi’s Requiem, and symphonic repertoire with the Belgian National Orchestra, Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia and IMEP Symphony Orchestra and Camerata.
Ayrton is the guest of several festivals: Festivals de Wallonie, Festival de l’Eté Mosan, MuCH Festival at the Queen Elisabeth Chapel, Cavatine, Kidzic, Est-Ouest, Lyrics de Leers, Balades Musicales de Rixensart, Ars Musica, Festival d’Été en Hainaut, Mozart Festival, Classissimo and Midis-Minimes.
In 2018, he took part in the recording of the complete works by Debussy published by Warner. Alongside the soprano Jodie Devos, he recorded Golijov’s Three songs.