Jean-Marie Zeitouni has emerged as one of Canada’s brightest young conductors whose eloquent yet fiery style in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary music results in regular re-engagements across Canada and the United States. His association with Les Violons du Roy goes back seven years, first as conductor-in-residence and since 2004 as associate conductor. He was also music director of their Young Artist Opera Program at the Banff Centre. His recent CD with the ensemble, titled “Piazzola,” garnered him a JUNO Award for Classical Album Of The Year in 2007. He made his U.S. orchestra debut with the Oregon Symphony in the Spring of 2005.
Next season is a landmark year for the conductor with a long list of subscription debuts and return engagements. In Canada, he returns for no less than three separate engagements with the Edmonton Symphony, appears for the first time with the Toronto Symphony, and makes subscription debuts with the Vancouver Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. In this country, he makes his subscription debut with the Omaha Symphony, and returns to the San Antonio Symphony and Columbus Symphony.
2008–09 was one of Zeitouni’s most impressive seasons yet. He made his subscription debut with numerous major orchestras, including the Houston Symphony, Vancouver Symphony and the symphonies of San Antonio, Oregon, and Omaha, as well as debuts at the Round Top Festival, Grant Park, and the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston. He also led several opera productions from the pit, among them Lucia di Lammermoor at Cincinnati Opera in its first staging of that work ever, Faust at Calgary Opera and Mozart’s Il re pastore with Opera Theatre of St. Louis.
During the 2007–08 season Zeitouni debuted with the Edmonton Opera in a production of Carmen. He guest-conducted the Honolulu Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Huntsville Symphony and the Monterey Symphony. In Canada, he gave his debut with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, returned to the Festival Lanaudière with both the Montreal Symphony and Les Violons du Roy, and the Edmonton Symphony.
As part of his 2006–07 season he conducted the highly anticipated world premiere of John Estacio and John Murrell’s Frobisher at Calgary Opera. He also led Gounod’sRoméo et Juliette at Opéra de Québec, the Vancouver Cantata Singers in a Messiah performance, and he made his long-awaited debut with Glimmerglass Opera to lead Orpheus in the Underworld by Offenbach.
Prior to his commitments with Les Violons du Roy and l’Opera de Montréal, he was music director of a wide array of smaller ensembles and choirs, among them the choir Contrapunctus, le Théâtre d’art lyrique de la Montérégie, le Chœur de Laval and l’Orchestre des Jeunes de l’Ontario Français. He was also director of the orchestra and opera workshop of the Faculty of Music at Laval University, choir director of the Québec Symphony Orchestra the chorus master at l’Opéra de Québec.
Jean-Marie Zeitouni graduated from the Montreal Conservatory in conducting, percussion and theory. He studied with Maestro Raffi Armenian.
