Frenchman Jean
Thorel was appointed the chief conductor of the City Chamber Orchestra
of Hong Kong in 2008. Since 1985 he has held the appointment of permanent
conductor of the Stringendo Orchestral Ensemble in Paris. With the support
of renowned French conductor Jean-Claude Casadesus, he was awarded the
1989 Vocation Foundation Prize for his outstanding work with this ensemble.
Jean Thorel is increasingly in demand as a guest conductor throughout
Scandinavia, Finland and Poland, his versatility enabling him to conduct
a wide range of music from ballet to multi-faceted chamber and orchestral
programmes. In Europe he conducts several chamber orchestras including
the Saint Michel Strings (Finland), Musica Vitae (Sweden), Musiques Nouvelles
(Belgium), and the Danish Chamber Players. An impassioned promoter of
new and rare music, Jean Thorel is a regular conductor at prestigious
festivals of contemporary music and has given over four hundred world
premieres. He also has an extensive discography of over twenty CDs. Among
them, his recording of works by Louis Saguer with the Moscow Contemporary
Music Ensemble was joint winner of the 2002 Académie du Disque
Lyrique "Orphée d'Or" together with Pierre Boulez's
interpretation of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Jean Thorel studied
orchestral conducting with Jean-Jacques Werner and Léon Barzin
and ballet conducting with Antal Dorati and André Girard.
