Frédéric Chaslin

Frédéric Chaslin (French: [ʃas.lɛ̃]; born 1963, in Paris) is a French conductor, composer and pianist. He recently joined the prestigious Music publishing house Universal Edition in Vienna.

Chaslin discussing Carmen at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in 2016

The son of an architect,[1] Chaslin studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he won first prizes in harmony, counterpoint, fugue, piano accompaniment, vocal direction, and orchestration. He later studied at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, where his mentors included Paul von Schilawsky.

In 1989, Chaslin became an assistant conductor to Daniel Barenboim at the Orchestre de Paris and at the Bayreuth Festival. In 1991, he held a similar post with Pierre Boulez at the Ensemble Intercontemporain from 1989 to 1991. Boulez gave him his first concerts at an international level in Roma (July 1991) and at the Festival Wien Modern (19 October 1991). Chaslin was music director of the Opera de Rouen from 1991 to 1994.[2] He was chief conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (JSO) from 1999 to 2002, between the music directorships of David Shallon and Leon Botstein. From 1999 to 2005, he was a resident conductor of the Vienna State Opera. He served as Generalmusikdirektor of the Nationaltheater Mannheim from 2005 to 2006.[3] In 2010, Chaslin was re-appointed to the JSO as its next music director, effective September 2012, with an initial contract of three years.

Chaslin first conducted in the United States at the Metropolitan Opera in November 2002.[4] In July 2009, he made his conducting debut at Santa Fe Opera (SFeO), in the first production of La traviata to feature Natalie Dessay as Violetta.[5] In May 2010, SFeO announced the appointment of Chaslin as the company's second chief conductor in its history, effective October 1, 2010, with an initial contract of three years.[6][7] He resigned his position with SFeO at the end of August 2012.[8]

Chaslin's compositions include the Chagall Suite for orchestra, Diva Dance for the film The Fifth Element, songs and lieder, and several operas, including adaptations of Wuthering Heights (libretto by P.H. Fisher) and of S.P. Somtow's Vampire Junction.[9] He has also written a book on music, La Musique dans Tous les Sens (scheduled English title, Music in Every Sense), published in 2009.[1] Recent recordings include Diana Damrau singing his "Vocalise" from "Wuthering Heights" (Warner)[10] and an entire album for Sony Classical with Sonya Yoncheva, "Paris mon Amour".[11] Chaslin dedicated the last years to the composition of entire cycles based on poetry by Robert Frost. All three cycles have been performed with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra between 2012 and 2015,[12] and are available on YouTube for listening. Chaslin wrote a song cycle after Jean Cocteau for soprano, and is currently composing a musical based on Monte Cristo, commissioned by Plácido Domingo.

Chaslin's first novel, "Being Gustav Mahler", is being released on October 2 by Fayard Publishing, Paris.

Personal quote: "I'm happy being busy, as long as I'm busy being happy".[13]