Diverse, experienced, and creative in his approach, orchestral conductor, composer and artistic director Antonin Rey is committed to reconciling the arts.
As a conductor, Antonin avidly champions new music, recording on numerous occasions for France Musique. Antonin has premiered many new works and collaborated with composers including B. Cavanna, M.-A. Dalbavie, V. Cruz, R. Piéchaud, F. Durieux, M.-A. Magalhaes, and A. Maestracci.
Antonin is enthusiastic to reinvent the traditional concert. As an orchestral conductor and artistic director, he collaborates regularly with stage actors, directors, and scenographers. Striving to create new forms of musical performance, he founded his Ensemble des Possibles in 2011. Based in Paris, the Ensemble des Possibles have built a new path through their innovative approach to musical creativity through their ‘concert-spectacles’, such as Urban Concerto, La Musique vagabonde, and Le bal des Possibles.
In France, Antonin has served as guest conductor with groups such as the Ensemble Itinéraire, the Métamorphoses Orchestra and the Pasdeloup Orchestra at La Seine Musicale. In June 2019, he was assistant conductor to Maestra Elena Schwarz at the Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival.
On the international stage, Antonin conducts the Moroccan Philharmonic Orchestra (Morocco) on a regular basis and has recently served as guest conductor of the Silesian Chamber Orchestra (Poland), the Banatul Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania), and I Solisti Aquilani (Italie).
Antonin Rey holds a Master of Orchestral Conducting from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP), where he studied with Maestro Alain Altinoglu. During his studies, he also worked with Peter Eötvos, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Susanna Mällki, Arie van Beek. In 2013, he received a one-year grant and studied for one year at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Ohio, USA under the tutelage of Carl Topilow.
Violinist by training, Antonin studied composition from a young age, with Professors Valéry Aubertin and Jean-Luc Hervé. Composing over thirty pieces for a wide variety of instrumentations, Antonin was laureate of the 2018 Ensemble Ecoute Composition Competition as well as recipient of the Jury’s Choice Award at the 2023 Vedrarias Competition for his work Set pour un jour futur. Notable recordings of Antonin’s works include his String Quartet No. 2 (2022), which was commissioned and recorded by the Lontano Quartet. Antonin’s passion for literature has led him to collaborate with librettist Marie-Nil Chounet to compose the music for his inaugural Chamber Opera, L’athlete immobile.
Passionate to contribute to the transmission of his craft, Antonin has served since 2022 as Professor of Conducting and Contemporary Repertoire at the Montreuil Departmental Conservatory.
Complementary to his work as composer and conductor, Antonin Rey is also an active writer. Antonin has written texts for transdisciplinary performances of Stravinsky’s Petrouchka and Purcell’s King Arthur. In addition to texts for the stage, he has written several collections of short stories and poetry.