Fayçal Karoui

Born in Paris in 1971, Fayçal Karoui became Michel Plasson's assistant at the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, a position he held until 2002 in which year he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn.  From 2006 he was Musical Director of the prestigious New York City Ballet, and in 2012 was appointed head of the legendary Lamoureux Orchestra. The following year he was made a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the Minister of Culture and Communication in France, and in 2015 was awarded by the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Académie Française. In 2017 he celebrated his 15th anniversary as Musical Director of the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn, where he has been widely praised for his remarkable work. 

Regularly conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for ballets at the Staatsoper, Karoui distinguished himself in 2019 in Amsterdam by conducting the Dutch Ballet Orchestra in a programme entitled “Best of Balanchine”, and in Hong Kong where he conducted The Swan Lake as part of an anniversary programme of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Hong Kong Ballet.