CLAUDE KESMAECKER

After his musical training and study of the trombone at the Conservatoire National de Région de Lille, Claude Kesmaecker obtained three first prizes at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. Thereafter, having taken first prize in the International Conductors Competition at Kerkrade in the Netherlands in 1985, he decided to direct his career towards wind bands. Keen to enlarge and promote wind-band repertoire, he has recorded some fifteen discs, some with the collaboration of international soloists, the Epsilon Ensemble, Jacques Mauger, and Michel Becquet, and regularly seeks out new works. He has been invited on several occasions to the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Russia and Taiwan, leading national wind bands and thus contributing to the wider knowledge of French music. He has appeared throughout France and has conducted the National Youth Orchestra of the Confédération Musicale de France since its foundation in 2002 and 2003, giving a number of master-classes. At the same time he conducts distinguished orchestras such as the the Orchestra of the Pasdeloup Concerts, the Orchestre Colonne and the orchestra of the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. Since March 2005 he has been conductor of the Paris Musique de l’Air.