Ayrton Desimpelaere

Born in 1990, the Belgian conductor Ayrton Desimpelaere graduated in piano and conducting from the National and Regional Conservatories of Paris and Versailles, and the Royal Conservatories of Brussels and Mons, as well as from the Sorbonne and the ULB in Musicology. Guest conductor since 2017 at the IMEP, he is also professor of orchestra conducting, choral singing, and vocal coaching. In 2017, he received the Lekime Frison and Gerofi Baschwitz Prizes, and in 2018, the Maurice Lefranc Prize.

In 2016, he joined the Artistic Committee of the International André Dumortier Competition. In June 2015, in Moscow, he conducted Yury Bashmet’s Moscow Soloists at short notice during the piano semi-final of the International Tchaikovsky Competition. A few months later, the Royal Opera of Wallonia (ORW) hired him for four seasons as assistant conductor and guest conductor. After conducting Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (young audience) at the ORW, he conducted the world premiere of #Folon (Nicola Campogrande) in 2018, Don Quichotte (Massenet/Le Hérisser) in 2019, and Le Petit chaperon rouge (Stefano Guagnini) in 2020.

In 2018, he conducted Il Matrimonio segreto by Cimarosa in the staging of Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera. That same year, he also conducted two performances of Aïda by Verdi and a performance of Madama Butterfly by Puccini. He conducted the orchestra of the ORW for the Gala concerts of the NILAC in April 2019. Subsequently, he conducted a narrative-concert with Alain Duault around the Strauss Family, the 50th anniversary of the IMEP, Ursule and Irsute (opera for young audiences) at the ORW, and a charity concert in the presence of the Belgian Royal Family. He also conducted the final of the second edition of the Namur International Lyric Art Competition (NILAC).

Desimpelaere has assisted prominent conductors such as Speranza Scappucci (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) and Daniel Oren (I Lombardi alla prima Crociata), and regularly collaborates with the ORW orchestra. He was invited by the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra for a month of concerts in Ankara (Turkey). Throughout his career, he has worked with several renowned conductors and musicians, including Paolo Arrivabeni, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Rinaldo Alessandrini, José Cura, Massimo Zanetti, Wolfgang Doerner, and Mikhaïl Faerman.

His extensive opera repertoire includes La Bohème, Turandot, Nabucco, Don Giovanni, Orphée aux Enfers, La Damnation de Faust, Otello, Rigoletto, Carmen, Tosca, Faust, Aida, Madama Butterfly, and Lakmé, among many others. He has also conducted several sacred music works, including Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C Minor, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Verdi’s Requiem, and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater.

Desimpelaere has led performances with the Belgian National Orchestra, Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, and the IMEP Symphony Orchestra and Camerata. He has been a guest at various festivals, such as the Festivals de Wallonie, MuCH Festival at the Queen Elisabeth Chapel, and Ars Musica. In 2018, he participated in the recording of the complete works by Debussy published by Warner. Alongside soprano Jodie Devos, he recorded Golijov’s Three Songs.