Created with the support of the Nord-Pas de Calais Region, with the maestro Jean-Claude Casadesus and with the support of the State, The Orchestre National de Lille gave its first concert in January 1976. Since then, thanks to the ambitious artistic projects developed by its founder, it established itself as a leading French orchestra, open to a wide range of audiences, with the desire to “bring music wherever it may be received”. Each year, the Orchestra performs in its concert hall Le Nouveau Siècle in Lille (renovated and inaugurated in 2013), and in a lot of cities in the region, in France and abroad (more than 30 countries visited on four continents).
According to its mission, the Orchestra plays the symphonic repertoire, operas, but also contemporary music, particularly by appointing composers in-residence. In parallel, it innovates with events dedicated to new audiences: “live cinema concerts”, “famillissimo” concerts, “flash concerts” at lunch break, and the “Lille piano(s) festival”. The Orchestra invites international conductors and soloists as well as young talents.
The Orchestra is equipped with a digital Hi-Tech recording studio (one of the only two orchestras in the world to have one).
Recording is an important part of the Orchestra’s activity in collaboration with prestigious labels (DGG, Warnerclassics, Naxos …). In 2017, several releases are planned between March and November: the first recordings of the trumpet player Lucienne Renaudin-Vary and the cellist Camille Thomas, with conductors such as Jean-Claude Casadesus, Alexandre Bloch, Darrell Ang, Jun Märkl and Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli.
From the 1st of September 2016, Alexandre Bloch is the new music director of the Orchestra.
ACTIVITIES/DOWNLOAD
2017-2018 Season booklet. Download materials (pdf files)
EUROPEAN PROJECTS
The Orchestre National de Lille has been involved in an INTERREG I project from 1999 to 2001 : concerts in England – in Canterbury (September 1999 and May 2001), in Fichcocks (October 2001), in Folkestone (September 1998, June 2000, and May 2001), in Kent (March April 1999), in Maidstone (October 1999 and October 2000), in Tonbridge (September 1998), in Wye (October 2001) – And several collaborations for symphonic and chamber music concerts in Lille (from November 2018 to December 2001) and in an INTERREG III for a concert on the 8th of July 2006 in Boulogne-sur-Mer (France) with the participation of the Brighton Festival Chorus