Fayçal Karoui
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“The music throughout is beautifully performed by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, directed with speed and finesse by former New York City Ballet conductor Fayçal Karoui.”
The Guardian, April 2025
One of the most sought-after conductors in the world of ballet, Fayçal Karoui regularly collaborates with leading international companies including Paris Opera Ballet, Wiener Staatsballett, The Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Hong Kong Ballet and the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, among many others. From 2006 to 2012, he served as Music Director of New York City Ballet.
Karoui opens the 2026/27 season conducting Swan Lake with Dutch National Ballet, before returning to the Semperoper for The Nutcracker. At the end of the year, he joins the Opéra national du Capitole de Toulouse for Les Trois Mousquetaires. In spring 2027, he makes his debut with Staatsballett Berlin, conducting a double bill featuring George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, set to Bizet, and Christian Spuck’s Fearful Symmetries, set to music by John Adams. He concludes the season with a return to Wiener Staatsballett.
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Chief Conductor of the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn since 2002, Karoui is deeply committed to education and outreach. He regularly collaborates with leading international soloists including Alexandre Kantorow, Sir Stephen Hough, Alexandre Tharaud, Bertrand Chamayou, Nemanja Radulović, Daishin Kashimoto and Gautier Capuçon.
From 2012 to 2014, he succeeded Yutaka Sado as Music Director of the legendary Orchestre Lamoureux. Among the highlights of his tenure was a highly acclaimed production of Fauré’s Pénélope in June 2013, featuring Roberto Alagna and Anna Caterina Antonacci.
Equally at home on the symphonic stage, Karoui has appeared with major orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, New Japan Philharmonic and Brussels Philharmonic.
Born in Paris in 1971, Karoui studied piano and conducting at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he was awarded First Prize in orchestral conducting before joining the institution’s advanced conducting programme. He subsequently became assistant to Michel Plasson at the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, a formative collaboration through which he developed an extensive symphonic and operatic repertoire.
In March 2013, Fayçal Karoui was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
Contacts
François Guyard Senior Director, General Manager HarrisonParrott Paris
“The music throughout is beautifully performed by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, directed with speed and finesse by former New York City Ballet conductor Fayçal Karoui.”