The French conductor and harpsichordist Emmanuelle Haïm is one of the most important musicians working in the field of early music. In 2000 she founded the Baroque ensemble Le Concert d’Astrée, which she continues to direct today. In 2025 she conducted a new production of Handel’s Semele directed by Oliver Mears at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and a revival of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
Engagements in the 2025/26 season will include Semele at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and Jean-Marie Leclair’s Scylla et Glaucus at the Zurich Opera House, both in productions by Claus Guth.
Alongside her operatic activity Emmanuelle Haïm gives numerous concerts, both with Le Concert d’Astrée and as a guest conductor with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.
She has a long-term working partnership with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, with which ensemble she began a three-year partnership at the start of the 2024/25 season. As the orchestra’s Artistic Collaborator, she is responsible for The Handel Project, in which she conducts both the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Le Concert d’Astrée, sometimes with the two ensembles performing together.
Emmanuelle Haïm has received many prizes and awards for her artistic achievements, which include numerous CDs with Le Concert d’Astrée. In 2023 she was awarded the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.
Emmanuelle Haïm is also a dedicated teacher, and gives regular masterclasses at venues including the Paris Conservatoire and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. Together with members of Le Concert d’Astrée she has developed an outreach programme to introduce diverse audiences to music.