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In September 1971, the philharmonic orchestra of Pays de la Loire gave its first concerts in Nantes and Angers under the baton of Pierre Dervaux. Created on Marcel Landowski’s initiative, music director at the Ministry for the Arts, this original orchestra was constituted by the meeting of Nantes Opera orchestra and Popular Concerts Society Orchestra of Angers. Thus, since the origin, this orchestra is based on two cities with hundred musicians per half in Angers and Nantes.
Pierre Dervaux was the first musical director. He printed straightaway a "French colour" marked by the recordings of Vincent d’Indy, Henry Rabaud and Gabriel Pierné. This orientation was continued by Marc Soustrot who succeeded to him, from 1976 to 1994. With this French conductor, the orchestra made many tours (USA, Poland, Romania, Italy, Greece etc). Dutch Hubert Soudant, musical director from 1994 to 2004, gave to this orchestra new base, privileging the Viennese repertory (Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven) and increased its audience. The orchestra became "national" in 1996 and gave concerts in Germany, Hungary, Salzburg, China, and Japan…
Brasilian Isaac Karabtchevsky is the fourth musical director. Besides, he creates, in 2004, an amateur singers chorus in order to increase the repertory with the major vocal works and set-up a link between the orchestra and the public. Isaac Karabtchevsky favours the great repertory of 19th century’s end and the 20th century’s beginning (Tchaïkovski, Mahler, Stravinski, and Bartok). Under his baton, the orchestra performed a triumphal tour in the main German cities (
Cologne, Dusseldorf, Nuremberg etc.) and is going to start a great tour in South America (Buenos Aires, Saõ Paulo, Rio de Janeiro). Today, with more than 10 000 subscribers and 200 concerts gathering each year nearly 200 000 persons, the national orchestra of Pays de la Loire is one of the European orchestras having the strongest audience. Its subsidies come from financial support of the Pays de la Loire’s Regional Council, the Ministry for the Arts, the town Councils of Nantes and Angers, the five Departments of the Region of the Pays de la Loire.
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