A prominent interpreter of contemporary music, Pierre-André Valade, born in France in 1959, co-founded the Paris-based Ensemble Court-Circuit in 1991, of which he was Music Director for 16 years. He held the position of Music Director of the Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen from 2009 to 2014, and remains an active guest conductor of the ensemble. He was also appointed Principle Guest Conductor of the Lyon-based Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain in 2013, and since 2014, he is as well Conductor-in-Residence at the Meitar Ensemble Tel-Aviv.
Pierre-André Valade is especially admired for his performances of repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries, most notably by the French Spectralist school’s masters Gérard Grisey or Tristan Murail, as well as Helmut Lachenmann, Brian Ferneyhough, Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti and other prominent figures in contemporary music. He also frequently conducts early 20th century masters like Debussy, Ravel or Stravinsky. Transposing his intimate knowledge and expertise of the modern repertoire to a range of classical and romantic including Schumann, Schubert, Beethoven, Berlioz or Verdi, he brings a uniquely modernist and personal vision to the works.
Of Pierre-André Valade’s many recordings, Grisey's Les Espaces Acoustiques is singled out for particular praise, winning the Diapason d'Or de l'année 1999 as well as the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros. He was awarded the latter distinction again in 2008, for his outstanding contribution to modern music in his prolific recording career. In 2018, he appeared alongside fellow world-class conductors on a box-set of 14 discs tracing 150 years of history of the celebrated Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, released by Sony Classics.
A regular guest conductor with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, other orchestras he has conducted include BBC Symphony (London), BBC Scottish Symphony (Glasgow), Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Glasgow), Philharmonia (London), Ulster (Belfast), RTE National Symphony (Dublin), Royal Northern Sinfonia (Newcastle), Luxembourg Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Göteborgs Symfoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France (Paris), Orchestre de Paris, Saarbrucken Radio Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Orchestra della RAI Torino, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Bit20 (Bergen), Contrechamps (Geneva), the Asko Schoenberg Ensemble (Amsterdam), Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony and the Philharmonia’s Music of Today series.
He receives worldwide invitations from major festivals and has appeared at the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh Festival, Bath International Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Holland Festival, Strasbourg Musica, Bergen International Festival, Bergen Borealis, Helsinki Musica Nova, Oslo Ultima, Copenhagen Klang, Berlin Ultraschall, Berlin MaertzMusik, Donaueschingen Musiktage, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Tel-Aviv CEME, Milano Musica, Tokyo Music Today 21, Tokyo Suntory Hall Summer Festival, Zürich Tage für neue Musik, Wellington New-Zealand Art Festival, Brussels Ars Musica, Geneva Archipel, Warsaw Autumn, Warsaw Witold Lutosławski "Chain" Festival, Monte Carlo Le Printemps des Arts, Nice Manca Festival, Lyon Musiques en Scènes, Paris Ircam Manifeste, Paris Radio-France Présences, Zagreb Music Biennale, Perth International, Sydney International, and other major festivals.
He was awarded Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture in 2001.