Claire Gibault began her career at the Opéra National de Lyon before becoming the first woman to conduct the Orchestra of La Scala and the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic. Musical director of Musica per Roma from 2000 to 2002, she was also Claudio Abbado's assistant at La Scala, the Vienna Opera and the Royal Opera House in London. In 2004, she took part alongside him in the creation of the Orchestra Mozart di Bologna, and remained with him until 2007, also giving her own concerts.

a pioneering conductor

Claire Gibault has been invited by prestigious institutions (Washington Opera House, Edinburgh Festival, Glyndebourne Festival, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra-Comique, Opéra de Marseille, Théâtre des Célestins in Lyon, etc. ) and major orchestras: Halle Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale de la RAI, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orchestre Philharmonique de l'Opéra de Nice, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Orchestre de l'Opéra de Marseille, Våsterås Sinfonietta, Osaka Symphony Orchestra, etc.

As musical director of the Atelier Lyrique and Maîtrise de l'Opéra de Lyon, the Orchestre de chambre de Chambéry and Musica per Roma, she has conducted numerous productions, including Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola, Mozart's La Finta Giardiniera and Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette, Offenbach'sLes Brigands, Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole and L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, Haydn's Il Mondo della luna, Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride , Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte and Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Henze's Pollicino, Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel and Bernstein's West Side Story.

In 2014, Claire Gibault conducted the world premiere of Jean-Claude Petit's opera Colomba at the Opéra de Marseille and was invited by the Verdi Orchestra of Milan to conduct Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.10 and the world premiere of Fabio Vacchi's Veronica Franco at the Auditorium Fondazione Cariplo.

The following season, she was invited back to conduct the Verdi Orchestra at the Milan Universal Exhibition, and appeared at the helm of the Orchestra della Toscana for a series of Mozart concerts.

In recent seasons, she has conducted works by Edith Canat de Chizy and Philippe Hersant at the Philharmonie de Paris, Silvia Colasanti's Orfeo at the Théâtre Le Liberté in Toulon, and Mozart and Beethoven programmes as part of La Folle Journée de Nantes. Invited by the Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM (Mexico) to conduct 2 Berlioz concerts in January 2018, she took part in the jury of its international conducting competition the same year.

Paris Mozart Orchestra

Drawing on her experience working with Claudio Abbado and his Mozart Orchestra, Claire Gibault founded the Paris Mozart Orchestra in 2011, with whom she currently gives around thirty concerts a year (Théâtre du Châtelet, Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium national de Lyon, Concertgebouw d'Amsterdam...). With a strong commitment to creation, she regularly collaborates with contemporary composers such as Graciane Finzi, Wolfgang Rihm, Silvia Colasanti, Fabio Vacchi, Edith Canat de Chizy, Philippe Hersant, Alexandra Grimal, Manon Lepauvre and Orlando Bass.

Transmission

Passionate about teaching, Claire Gibault is regularly asked to give conducting masterclasses. She has recently collaborated with the Royal Opera House and the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme in London, and runs her own series of masterclasses in Paris. She is also co-founder and co-director of La Maestra, an international competition and academy for female conductors, whose first three editions took place in 2020, 2022 and March 2024 at the Philharmonie de Paris.

In March 2022, Claire Gibault's autobiography La Musique à mains nues, originally published by Éditions L'Iconoclaste in 2010, was reissued by Add Editore in a version translated into Italian and expanded with two previously unpublished chapters, under the title Direcctrice d'Orchestra: La mia musica, la mia vita.

In 2023, Claire Gibault was named one of Forbes France's 40 Women of the Year and won^1st prize in the Chaumet Echo Culture Awards for committed projects by women. She is also an Officier de la Légion d'Honneur and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.