Philippe Bernold began his musical studies in Colmar, France, studying the flute and later composition and conducting under René Matteer, himself a student of Charles and Fritz Münch. He continued his flute studies at the Paris Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique where he earned the 1st prize in flute and the next year, at the age of 23, was appointed the first flute of the National Opera Orchestra of Lyon. 

In 1987 he won the 1st prize in the “Jean-Pierre Rampal International Competition” in Paris.

This award allowed him to start a career as a soloist, performing with world famous artists and orchestras such as M. Rostropovitch, R. Capuçon, G. Opitz and A. Tharaud and with the Paris Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra (Manchester), the National Orchestra of Lyon, the Tokyo and Kyoto Symphony Orchestras, among others. Philippe  Bernold has been directed by S. Bychkov, J. E. Gardiner, L. Maazel, K. Nagano, Sir Y. Menuhin, M. Inoué and T. Koopman. He performed in concert halls such as the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Pleyel Hall and the Châtelet Theater in Paris, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, the Seoul Art Center, the Tchaïkovsky Conservatory in Moscow as well as at the Festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Cannes, Evian, Strasbourg, Radio France, Varna, among others.

Philippe Bernold returned to conducting in 1994, founding “Les Virtuoses de l’Opéra de Lyon” with the encouragement of the conductors John Eliot Gardiner and Kent Nagano. The ensemble quickly gained a reputation for its high level of artistry. Since then, he has been invited to conduct concerts with such ensembles as the Sinfonia Varsovia touring in Lisbon, Bilbao, Valence, Nantes and Warsaw, the National Opera Orchestra of Lyon, the Baden Baden Philharmonie, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Marseille, the Orchestra of the Opera house of Toulon, the Kanazawa Ensemble (Japan), the Bucheon Philharmonic (Seoul), the Geneva Chamber Orchestra, the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Wiener Kammerorchester, the Cappella Istropolitana, with whom he is first guest conductor. In Caracas, (Venezuela) Philippe conducts the famous Simon Bolivar Orchestra (Musical director: Gustavo Dudamel).

For the TV, Philippe Bernold conducted in 2008 a complete Mozart program with the Sinfonia Varsovia and Alexei Ogrintchouk as a soloist. He has done three recordings with the Chamber Orchestra of Paris and with the same ensemble, he recorded Mozart flute concertos (Aparté). His first recording won the “Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros” in 1989. Since then Philippe Bernold has made more than twenty recordings for Harmonia Mundi, EMI and others. He has also made many recordings with the pianist Alexandre Tharaud, which has received rare reviews. 

Philippe Bernold is Professor of Flute at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon and Professor of Chamber Music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. For over ten years he has been teaching in Kyoto as part of the “Académie de musique française” and for 15 years at the “Académie Internationale d’Eté de Nice”. 

www.philippebernold.com