Claude Villaret

Was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. After his studies of piano and conducting, he concentrated first on his career as a soloist. Bernard Haitink invited him to follow his work with the Euyo and the Berliner Philharmoniker.

He lived a few years in Argentina where he founded the Youth Orchestra of Latin America in 1990, which he conducted in the famous Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Back in Europe he was winner in 1994 of the conducting competition of the music academy in Biel. Therefore he was invited as guest conductor from the South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic. Since then he is conducting in music centers such as Milan, Zurich, Salzburg, Buenos Aires, Geneva and leads orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra Zurich (Switzerland), the Sinfônica Nacional (Brasil), the Plovdiv State Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria), Kammerorchester Tübingen (Germany), the State Philharmonic Orchestras of Arad, Sibiu and Oradea (Romania), the Musikkollegium Winterthur (2006 Switzerland).

Since 2002 he is permanent guest conductor of the Orquesta Sinfonica UNT de Tucuman (Argentina) as of the Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional since the season 2004. He leads the Symphony Orchestra KV in Zurich since 2000. In 2003 he was appointed chief conductor as artistic director of the TKO-the Chamber Orchestra Thurgau (Switzerland). He has also been conducting operas: performances of “La Bohème”, “Il Trovatore” as new productions of “Don Giovanni”, “Trouble in Tahiti” (L. Bernstein), “7 Deadly Sins” (K. Weill) in Geneva and Lausanne. He leaded several first performances of Swiss and foreign composers within Switzerland and abroad. He is also invited as guest professor to give masterclasses of conducting in Germany, Argentina and Brasil.