Laurent Zufferey appointed as Assistant to the Orchestre National de Lyon
Laurent Zufferey has been appointed as the new assistant conductor of the Orchestre national de Lyon in March 2023. He will take up his post for two years, starting in September 2023. He will work alongside Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider to study all his scores, attend his rehearsals and discuss his artistic interpretative choices.
"I am extremely pleased to have been appointed Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de Lyon. After experiences in the UK and Belgium, this new position offers a wealth of opportunities with a leading orchestra and an exceptional Music Director in Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. Working with such artists will, I am sure, be a great source of inspiration and take me to a new level in my development as a conductor and as a person.”
Selected from 148 candidates, then 4 finalists who came to Lyon, it was by conducting excerpts from Stravinsky's Petrouchka, Brahms' Third Symphony and Johann Strauss II's waltz Freut Euch des Lebens that he was chosen by a jury comprising Aline Sam-Giao, Managing Director of the AO, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Music Director of the orchestra, Ronald Vermeulen, Artistic Delegate, Jennifer Gilbert and Giovanni Radivo, supersolo violins, and the musicians Manon Souchard, Pierre Thibout, Vincent Dedreuil, Julien Malait and Guillaume Itier. As well as assisting the Music Director, the orchestra has entrusted him with the baton for a “Midi L'AO” concert featuring Ravel, Dvořák and Mussorgsky, and for the participatory concert “À vos instruments”.
