Nathalie Stutzmann


Nathalie Stutzmann is a French operatic contralto and conductor. As a singer, she specialises in Lieder, mélodies and baroque music. As a conductor, she directed Orfeo 55, the chamber orchestra she founded. She has been the principal guest conductor of RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra since September 2017 and chief conductor of Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra since September 2018.

Career

Born in Suresnes, she first studied with her mother, soprano Christiane Stutzmann, then at :fr:Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Nancy|Nancy Conservatoire and later at the École d'Art Lyrique of the Paris Opera, focusing on lied, under Hans Hotter's tutelage. She studied conducting with Jorma Panula. She is well known for her interpretations of French mélodies and German lieder. Stutzmann also plays piano, bassoon and is a chamber musician. Stutzmann debuted as a concert singer at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, 1985, in Bach's Magnificat. Her recital debut was the following year in Nantes. Some of her operatic performances have included: Radamisto, Orfeo ed Euridice and Giulio Cesare. She has sung at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Royal Festival Hall / “BBC Proms”, Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, Mozarteum, the Concertgebouw, La Monnaie, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, La Scala, the Opéra de Genève and the Berliner Philharmonie. Her repertoire includes major works of baroque, classical, romantic and 20th-century music.
Stutzmann performs frequently for opera, concert, recital and recording, and teaches at Geneva University of Music. She began performing and recording with Swedish pianist in 1994. She took part in the project of Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir to record Bach's complete vocal works.
In 2009 Stutzmann founded chamber orchestra Orfeo 55, with which she performed as both soloist and conductor. The orchestra's residence was Arsenal de Metz. Commencing September 2017, she became the Principal Guest Conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin, Ireland, with a contract for three years. In 2018 she was appointed as chief conductor in Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra.
On 24 April 2019 she announced the closure of Orfeo 55.

Quotes

Il y a deux types d’artistes : ceux qui s’attachent toute leur vie à montrer à quel point ce qu’ils sont en train de faire est difficile – ils ont leur public –, puis il y a ceux qui passent leur vie à essayer de faire croire que ce n’est pas du tout difficile, catégorie à laquelle j’appartiens. C’est sans doute aussi une forme de folie. C’est moins spectaculaire, peut-être, mais je préfère que le public puisse aller à l’essentiel. Je ne veux pas qu’il s’arrête à la performance, tout en la remarquant, mais qu’il puisse s’abandonner d’abord à la beauté de la musique.

There are two types of artists: those that strive their whole life to show how much what they're doing is difficult - they have their audience -, then there are those who spend their life trying to make people believe it is not at all difficult, which is the category I belong to. That is also probably a form of madness. It is less spectacular, perhaps, but I prefer that the audience be able to go to what is essential . I do not want them to stop at the performance, even though they might notice it, but that they be able to abandon themselves to the beauty of the music.

Recordings

She has over fifty recordings on labels including EMI, Erato, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, Philips, RCA and Sony and Virgin. Some of her most admired recordings are of Schumann Lieder, Chausson and Poulenc melodies, Mahler Symphony No. 2 with Seiji Ozawa, Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus and Schubert's Winterreise for Calliope. In 2014 Stutzmann, with Orfeo 55, made a new exclusive contract with Erato Records.
She received many awards, including the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Diapason d’Or, Japan Record Academy Award, and a Grammy Award.

Awards and honours