Stéphane Denève, now recognized internationally as an exciting young conductor of the highest calibre, made his inaugural appearance as Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on 29th September 2005 with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. With a career that has taken him to conducting engagements throughout Europe and in North America, in the 2005/06 season he conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Verdi Orchestra Milan, Montreal Symphony, Washington National Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra, and in May 2006 he conducted a Poulenc triple-bill at La Monnaie. In July and August 2006 he conducted the Russian National Orchestra at the Napa Valley and Tuscan Sun Festivals, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra at the BBC Proms in London and the Edinburgh International Festival. A graduate of the Paris Conservatoire where he was awarded a unanimous First Prize in 1995, Stéphane Denève began his career as Sir Georg Solti’s assistant for Bluebeard’s Castle with the Orchestre de Paris (1995) and Don Giovanni at the Paris National Opera (1996). He also assisted Georges Prêtre for Turandot at the Paris National Opera (1997) and Seiji Ozawa for Dialogues des Carmélites at the Saito Kinen Festival (1998). During those years he developed relationships with such orchestras as the Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, the Orchestre Philharmonique de
