Chief conductor of the HRT Symphony Orchestra

An innovative and passionate musician, Pascal Rophé is one of France’s most sought-after conductors. He is currently Music Director of the Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, effective from September 2022, and was previously Music Director of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire from February 2013 until July 2022. 

Pascal Rophé works with major orchestras including the two orchestras of Radio France, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC NOW, RTE National Symphony, Ensemble intercontemporain, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, RAI Torino, Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, SWR Sinfonieorchester and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. Highly regarded in Asia, he regularly conducts the NHK Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Hyogo PAC Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent highlights include the premieres of the Concerto for Violin and Cello by Pascal Dusapin with Viktoria Mullova and Matthew Barley in France and Italy, performances with the SWR Symphonieorchester at that Donaueschingen Festival and with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and the Tapiola Sinfonietta, with which he recorded the Chants d’Auvergne  with Carolyn Sampson. He made highly acclaimed debuts with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Arctic Philharmonic and the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra as well as returning to Asia to conduct the Seoul Philharmonic and the Hyogo PAC Orchestra.  

Committed to the operatic repertoire – Ariane et Barbe-Bleue at the Opera de Toulouse, Pélléas et Mélisande  with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Thaïs  for Opera di Roma, both Der fliegende Holländer  and Dialogue des Carmélites  at the Budapest Spring Festival - Pascal premiered Akhmatova, by Bruno Mantovani at the Opera national de Paris to great acclaim and has championed further contemporary operas by Michael Jarrell, Ahmed Essyad and Michèle Reverdy. 

For his extensive discography of recordings, Pascal Rophé has received numerous awards and praise from the press. A new recording of works by Dutilleux was released on BIS in 2016 to celebrate the centenary of the Dutilleux’s birth, and his recording of Dusapin with the Arditti Quartet and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France was awarded the Gramophone Award for the best contemporary recording in 2018. From 1992, after studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and winning second prize at the 1988 Besançon International Competition, he collaborated closely with Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble intercontemporain. Pascal previously served as Music Director of the Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra until June 2009.