Conductor François-Xavier Roth – born November 6, 1971, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France - is best known as the founder of the ensemble Les Siécles and the musical director of the Gürzenich Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, Germany. Also a musicologist, François-Xavier Roth makes it a point of honor to conduct using only period instruments. Born the son of organist and composer Daniel Roth, he originally studied the flute before turning to conducting. A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, France, François-Xavier Roth won the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London in 2000, which enabled him to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra for two years as assistant to Colin Davis and John Eliot Gardiner. In 2003, he founded Les Siécles, an ensemble that specializes in performing classical works on period instruments. Les Siècles’ repertoire ranges from baroque music to contemporary composers including works by Saint-Saëns, Berlioz, Varèse, Ligeti, Mahler, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel and Mussorgsky. François-Xavier Roth was guest conductor of the BBC Wales Orchestra (2008-2012), collaborated with the Liège Philharmonic Orchestra, took over as director of the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg im Breisgau (2011-2018), In 2017, he returned to the London Symphony Orchestra where he was appointed principal guest conductor. Honored with the title of Knight of the Legion of Honor in 2017, François-Xavier Roth has collaborated in recitals with Sabine Devieilhe and Renaud Capuçon. François-Xavier Roth’s rich catalog of releases began in 2005 and contains albums such as Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (2010), Stravinsky: L'Oiseau de Feu (2011), Liszt: Dante-Symphonie – Orpheus (2012), Stravinsky: Le Sacre du Printemps – Petrouchka (2014), Mirages (2017), Saint-Saëns: Le Timbre d'Argent (2020), and Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 - Méhul: Les Amazones: Overture (2021). In 2022, after the recording of the Debussy opera Pelléas et Mélisande, he conducted a recital entitled Ravel: Concertos Pour Piano – Mélodies – featuring pianist Cédric Tiberghien and baritone Stéphane Degout – which was released on the Harmonia Mundi label.
