Born in Paris in 1962, conductor Marc Piollet studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin and attended master classes with John Eliot Gardiner, Michael Gielen and Kurt Masur. In 1995 he was a prize winner at the Conductors' Forum of the German Music Council. From 2004 to 2012, he celebrated great success as General Music Director at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden with Wagner's complete »Ring des Nibelungen« and numerous new productions. A new production of »Tristan und Isolde« will take Marc Piollet to the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari in the 2021/2022 season. He also directs ballet premieres at Den Norske Opera (Oslo) and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen (Ghent), as well as revivals of »Carmen« (Düsseldorf) and »Werther« (Stuttgart). Concert engagements have taken him to the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz and the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester. Marc Piollet has also worked at major opera houses in recent seasons, including the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen (La Bohème with Anna Netrebko as Mimi), the Bayerische Staatsoer as part of the Munich Opera Festival (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), the Opéra National de Paris (Il barbiere di Siviglia, Les Contes d'Hoffmann with Rolando Villazón in the title role), the Staatstheater Stuttgart (Jenůfa, Duke Bluebeard's Castle/Erwartung), the Teatro Colónin Buenos Aires (Carmen and Don Giovanni), the Wiener Staatsoper (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (La Bohème and Carmen in a production by Calixto Bieito). Also with »Carmen«, he made his operatic debut in the U.S. at Cincinnati Opera in 2014, and in 2019 he conducted »Le Nozze di Figaro« there. For many years, Marc Piollet has been intensively involved with young orchestral talent: he regularly conducts work phases of the Junge Sinfonie Berlin, which he founded while still a student. During his time as Wiesbaden's General Music Director, he actively promoted the founding of the Orchesterakademie des Hessischen Staatsorchesters Wiesbaden. Since fall 2016, he has been a professor of conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.