PHILIPPE BENDER
musical director of the Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regional Orchestra

Philippe Bender was born in Besançon. He began his musical studies in his hometown before being accepted in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (Paris Higher School of Music) where he won three first prizes in 1959. He attended courses at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in Brisgau before graduating from the Julliard School in New York. He began a career as a concert flautist and won several international competitions in Geneva, Munich and Montreux.

Between 1960 and 1968 he led a career as a soloist playing in Switzerland, Germany and Austria before joining the Monte-Carlo orchestra where he met Paul Paray. Paul Paray discovered Philippe Bender’s conducting talents and encouraged him to take part in international competitions aimed at young conductors. He won the Besançon competition in 1968 and first prize in the prestigious Mitropoulos competition in New-York in 1970. Philippe Bender then worked as assistant conductor for the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez successively.

Philippe Bender has since conducted many western orchestras including the American Symphony in New York, the orchestras of the Swiss Romande, Geneva and Lausanne, those of Frankfurt and Baden-Baden, the Essicher Rundfunk Orchester, orchestras of the Hague, Rotterdam, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, New York Philharmonic, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Quebec Symphony Orchestra, N.H.K and Tokyo Philharmonic orchestras, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris and the Ensemble instrumental de Paris.

At the head of the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra he conducted a series of concerts in India that took him notably to Bombay, New Delhi, Madras… He is invited on a regular basis to the United States where he conducts various orchestras and takes part in many festivals. From 1995 to 1997 he was Artistic Director of the Balearic Symphony Orchestra of Palma de Majorca, of which he is still guest conductor, and conducts other Spanish ensembles, including the National Orchestra of Madrid, on a regular basis. He presides over 2 music academies in Fez and Palma de Majorca where he also gives master-classes in conducting.

High spots in Philippe Bender’s career include conducting the Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Orchestra in Japan, the United States, Germany, Austria, Brazil and China in major tours in cities such as New York, Washington, Tokyo, Osaka, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Vienna and Shanghai.

In 2005 the Victoires de la Musique Classique classical music awards presented him with a Victoire d'honneur prize for his overall work with the Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Orchestra. Philippe Bender’s awards include Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.