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Marc Minkowski

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Marc Minkowski is a French conductor, born in Paris in 1962. His grandmother was a violinist, his mother is American and his father was the Polish-French paediatrician Alexandre Minkowski. He began as a bassoonist with the Clemencic Consort and the Ricercar Consort. In 1982 he founded Les Musiciens du Louvre, an orchestra for French Baroque music. Among other things it played works by Marin Marais, Jean-Joseph Mouret, Charpentier, Lully and Rameau.

Music and breakthrough

With that orchestra he made many recordings, including Alcyone, Les Amours de Ragonde, Teseo and La Caravane du Caire. He also worked on lesser-known operas by Handel and Gluck. His interest broadened to opera in general. He conducted Mozart's Idomeneo in Paris, Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Salzburg and Giulio Cesare with Cecilia Bartoli, and recorded work by Offenbach. From 2008 to 2012 he was music director of Sinfonia Varsovia, from 2013 to 2017 of the Mozartwoche in Salzburg and from 2016 to 2021 general director of the Opéra national de Bordeaux. In 2026 he was appointed music director of Boston Baroque.

Influence

Minkowski brought French Baroque music to wider attention and recorded with singers such as Magdalena Kožená. His conducting style is lively and theatrical, and he showed how little-known work from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries can still captivate.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a recording by Les Musiciens du Louvre under Minkowski and notice the tight, dancing rhythms of the French Baroque and the clear sound of the period instruments.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists