Philippe Gérard

Active as a pianist in Belgium as well as abroad, Philippe Gérard moved progressively towards chamber music and singing accompaniment, while developing his career as a conductor. Permanent director of the chamber orchestra “La Chapelle Musicale de Tournai” since 1989, he collaborates with various ensembles and youth orchestras, as well as with renowned orchestras such as the Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, the National Orchestra of Belgium and the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia.

Regularly invited by most of the Belgian festivals (Wallonia and Flanders, Eté Mosan, Juillet Musical d’Aulne, Nuit de Beloeil, Brussels Festival, Festival “Midis-Minimes”, International Jazz Festival in Liège..), he has also often performed abroad (France, Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Middle East, Latvia, China, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Zambia..).

He conducted Louis Aubert’s lyrical tale, The Blue Forest, also Ravel’s opera l’Enfant et les Sortilèges, and recently a songplay of the American composer John Adams ”I was looking at the ceiling and the I saw the sky” for the Royal Opera of Wallonia,National Theatre of Belgium and the Theatre of the Athénée in Paris. Fascinated by singing, he has conducted numerous lyrical productions and choral works. Conducting the orchestra “la Chapelle Musicale de Tournai”, he recorded several CDs dedicated to Mozart, Absil, Holst, Britten as well as to the Cuban composer, Leo Brouwer.

He is professor emeritus of orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where, in 2008, he was awarded the “J. de la Haut” prize for his high-level teaching.