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The a Luxembourgish conductor and composer, Pierre Cao, studied composition and conducting at the Brussels Royal Conservatory. Fascinated by the human voice, he conducted the Dudelange Folk Choir from the age of eighteen.
In 1968, he won the Nikolai Malko International Conducting Competition in Copenhagen. Louis Froment, conductor of the Orchestra of the Luxembourg Broadcasting Company (RTL), then invited him to be his assistant. Over the next ten years, Pierre Cao conducted many of Europe's major orchestras and earned himself an international reputation through his numerous recordings. From then on, Pierre Cao led a double career as an orchestral and choral conductor. Whilst directing the great symphonic and operatic works, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the creation of amateur choirs, the running of vocal workshops, and the training of choral conductors.
Unanimously recognised for his qualities as a teacher, Pierre Cao is strongly committed to the training of conductors. Until 1998 he taught choral conducting at the Luxembourg Conservatoire, whilst taking advanced courses and giving numerous international master-classes, particularly in Belgium, France and Spain. With over forty years' experience in conducting choirs and extensive knowledge in the field of choral practice, in 1991 he proposed the founding of the Institut Européen du Chant Choral (lNECC). Pierre Cao has conducted several vocal ensembles - the Luxembourg Vocal Ensemble, the Choir of the Musikinstitut of Koblenz, L'Orchestre de Chambre 'Les Musiciens', la Psalette de Lorraine, and the Choeur de Chambre de Namur - with which he has presented most of the great choral works, from the Renaissance to the present day.
Fascinated by the Baroque movement, Pierre Cao has worked on numerous productions with ensembles including La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, Stradivaria, Ricercar Consort, Concrto Armonico Budapest, Les Agrémens de Namur, and La Fenice.
Pierre Cao is now artistic director of the choir Arsys and of the Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay, two major facets of the Pôle d'Art Vocal de Bourgogne, based in Vézelay. |
