First Prize winner and Special Prize of the Orchestra at the 8th International Jorma Panula Conducting Competition, Nathanaël Iselin is a French conductor based in Scandinavia and the Netherlands.

Iselin’s background as a contemporary percussion player cultivated in him a refined sensibility to the palette of sound colors. Combining it with an extensive training in harmony at the Paris Conservatoire, he developed a remarkable versatility that spans both classical and contemporary repertoires. His sound landscape particularly flourishes in the late-romantic and modern styles, with colorist composers such as Debussy and Ravel, as well as Mahler, Strauss and Sibelius. Paired with his percussion-trained strong sense of rhythm, he feels at home with Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Bartók’s music.

Nathanaël Iselin started his conducting career as assistant conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, the first person to hold that position in Denmark. Shortly thereafter, he came to international attention by winning the prestigious Jorma Panula Competition in Finland. He was then appointed Conductor in Residence of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. He also won the second prize at the German Conducting Award, with the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Gürzenich-Orchester Köln.

In the past season, notable highlights included conducting the orchestras of Odense, Aalborg, Aarhus, Sønderjylland, Lahti, Vaasa, Jyväskylä, Iceland and Picardie, in pieces such as Bruckner 3rd symphony, Dvořák 8th, Debussy “La Mer”… In 2019, he had the honor of conducting the Copenhagen Philharmonic in a performance for Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark. On various other occasions Nathanaël had the chance to conduct such orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Singapore Symphony, the Finnish Radio, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Philharmonie Konstanz.

On the lyrical scene, Nathanaël regularly conducts at Opera Hedeland, Denmark’s largest outdoor opera venue, where he led productions of Cenerentola, Carmen and Rigoletto. He also worked as a second conductor and assistant on Smetana’s The Bartered Bride at the Bern Opera, and Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten at the Cologne Opera, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Philharmonie de Paris.

Nathanaël Iselin has studied orchestra conducting in four of the most prestigious music universities in Europe : the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, the Hochschule der Künste in Zürich and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. Whilst a student he has been mentored by such renowned conductors as Iván Fischer, Mariss Jansons, Susanna Mälkki, Sakari Oramo, Michael Schønwandt, Giordano Bellincampi, Johannes Schlaefli, Thomas Søndergård, Alexander Vedernikov, Simone Young and Jaap van Zweden.

He also received a bachelor’s degree in percussion and a master’s diploma in harmony from the Paris National Conservatoire, as well as diplomas in piano and music theory. As a percussionist, he has performed with the Ensemble Intercontemporain-CNSMDP, the Limoges Opera, the Nouvelle Europe Orchestra, led by conductors such as David Zinman, Dennis Russell Davies and Matthias Pintscher.

Repertoire List

Symphonic

Opera

* in preparation

Contemporary