Nathalie Stutzmann is considered one of the most outstanding musical personalities of our time, with parallel careers as both Contralto and Conductor. Her charismatic musicianship, the unique combination of rigour and fantasy which characterises her style have been recognised by her peers, audience and critics alike. In 2015 Nathalie Stutzmann was announced as Associate Artist of the Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra. Beginning at the start of the 2016/17 season, the 3-year collaboration is multi-dimensional, with a focus on conducting projects.

Plans for the 2016/17 season include conducting débuts with London Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra (Messiah), Spanish National Orchestra, Kristiansand Symfoniorkester and Theater Orchester Biel, and return visits to Mito Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Oviedo Filarmonia, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine. She will conduct Tannhäuser at Monte-Carlo Opera, an immediate invitation following her 2014 success with L’elisir d’amore. Projects with Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra include performances of Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Khatia Buniatishvili.

Recent highlights within Europe include return guest conducting projects with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic (where she was Artist-in-Residence for the 2015/16 season), Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and débuts with Gavle Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, and RTE National Symphony of Ireland. In the United States she conducted Handel’s Messiah with Detroit Symphony and National Symphony Orchestra Washington to great success, and made her debut with St Louis Symphony including Dvorak Symphony No. 7.

Her conducting career is also flourishing in Japan. In Autumn 2015 she made her highly successful debut with the New Japan Philharmonic at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, conducting a programme of Takemitsu, Schubert and Bizet. In 2014, following a first project with the Mito Chamber Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa invited her to share the concert platform with him, for a symphonic programme of works by Mendelssohn. She returns to conduct the Mito Chamber Orchestra in Autumn 2016 with a programme of symphonies by Mozart, Prokofiev and Bizet. Maestro Ozawa also invited her to conduct a production of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges at the Saito Kinen Festival in Summer 2015.

Nathalie Stutzmann sings regularly with the world’s greatest conductors and orchestras. Plans for the 2016-17 season include Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Christoph Eschenbach, and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with Paul Daniel and Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine. Particularly acclaimed for her performances of Mahler, highlights of recent seasons have included performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 at the Verbier Festival/Michael Tilson-Thomas, with Berlin Philharmonic/Sir Simon Rattle, with Frankfurt Radio Symphony/Andrés Orozco-Estrada and with Sao Paulo State Symphony/Marin Alsop, Rückert-Lieder at National Symphony Orchestra Washington/Eschenbach and Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Danish National/Petrenko.

A highly-praised recitalist, she performs all over the world with the Swedish pianist Inger Södergren, with whom she has recorded several song cycles by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Poulenc and Chausson among others. Recent recitals include at Nieuwe Kerk Den Haag, at St George’s Hall Liverpool, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, la Monnaie in Brussels and Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, and a Japan tour to celebrate the re-release by Warner/Erato of their earlier recording of the 3 Schubert song cycles. Recitals during the 2016-17 season include Auditori de Girona, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Stockholm Concert Hall, Hochschule fur Musik Detmold, and recitals in Monte Carlo and Japan.

Nathalie Stutzmann studied conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula and was mentored by Seiji Ozawa and Simon Rattle. She founded her own chamber orchestra, Orfeo 55, in 2009. The orchestra’s permanent home is at the Arsenal in Metz, France, where Nathalie Stutzmann is Artist in Residence. She received the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite’ honour from the French State and in Spring 2015 she was appointed an Officer of the prestigious ‘Arts et Lettres’ in France.

She has an exclusive contract with Warner Classics/ Erato as both singer and conductor. Her most recent recording at the helm of Orfeo 55 Heroes from the Shadows, an album which puts unfairly overlooked roles in Handel’s Operas firmly into the limelight, was released in 2014 to critical acclaim. Other recent releases include Prima Donna for DG, featuring Vivaldi’s great contralto repertoire, and Une Cantate Imaginaire, a highly-praised cornucopia of some of Bach’s most glorious vocal and orchestral music, both recorded with Orfeo 55.