French conductor Mélisse Brunet, from Hispanic and Italian descent, is currently living in Philadelphia, PA. She is quickly gaining attention on both sides of that Atlantic as a “skilled and polished conductor with panache” (ClevelandClassical.com). In July 2022, she became the fifth Music Director of the Lexington Philharmonic, KY, and the first woman to hold the position, she is also in her third season as the Music Director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, PA.
Brunet is one of the 5 conductors featured in the documentary “Maestra” by the Director Maggie Contreras and produced by David Letterman and Melanie Miller (“Navalny”), among others. The world premiere was on June 9 at the Tribeca Festival, in NYC, and won the 2nd place to the 2023 Tribeca Audience Award - Documentary. It has received rave reviews in the press, including two articles in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Hollywood Reporter.
During the 2023-24 season, besides her two orchestras, she will be conducting the Eugene Symphony, OR, the West Virginia Symphony, the Orchestre d’Avignon (France), the University of Illinois orchestra, and promoting “Maestra” in various festivals.
A protégée of Pierre Boulez, Brunet was one of the 14 finalists selected over 200 applicants for the second edition of the International Competition La Maestra in 2022 in Paris. She was one of six conductors selected for the 2018 Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview (Nashville Symphony Orchestra), chosen for their “experience, talent, leadership potential, and commitment to a career in service to American orchestras.” In 2017 she was one of six conductors chosen for the international Hart Institute for Women Conductors at the Dallas Opera, selected out of 161 applicants from 33 countries.
As a dynamic advocate of contemporary music, Brunet has collaborated with composers such as T.J. Cole, Steven Stucky, Michael Daugherty, Shulamit Ran, James Barry, Mary D. Watkins, Loren Loiacono, and Jennifer Higdon, among others.
As an opera and music-theatre conductor, Brunet has conducted Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at the Power Center in Ann Arbor; four staged performances of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte; and Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, and Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus in Boone, NC, and two staged performances of Verdi’s La Traviata at the Coralville Center for Performing Arts, IA.
As a Pops conductor, Brunet has been collaborating with Spot-On Entertainment and Scott Coulter for several years, as well as with many other entertainment companies. She has been programming Pops concerts for Holiday Pops, Independence Day, Halloween, Valentine, and some thematic programs (notably a John Williams tribute), performing indoors and outdoors for up to 6000 people, and she also conducted orchestras during live movie projections.
A native of Paris, Brunet began her studies on the cello, and learned to play the trumpet, French horn, and piano. She holds six diplomas from the Paris Conservatory, diplomas from the Université la Sorbonne, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the University of Michigan. She has studied French, English, German, and Italian lyric diction, and speaks English, French, Italian, Chinese, and some Spanish, Hebrew, and German. You can read more about her on her website melissebrunet.com
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