“A skilled and polished conductor with an excellent pedigree including conducting degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Michigan, and the Paris Conservatory, Brunet led the orchestra with panache and clarity, giving inspiring and assured renditions of each work.”
— Cleveland Classical
Biography
American conductor Mélisse Brunet, a native of Paris, France, is currently living in Philadelphia. She is quickly gaining attention on both sides of that Atlantic as a “skilled and polished conductor with panache” (ClevelandClassical.com). She is in her second season as Music Director of the Lexington Philharmonic in Kentucky, and in her fourth season as the Music Director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic.
Brunet is one of the five conductors featured in the documentary “Maestra” by the Director Maggie Contreras and produced by David Letterman and Melanie Miller (“Navalny”), among others. “Maestra” won the 2nd place to the 2023 Tribeca Audience Award – Documentary. It has received rave reviews in the press, including two articles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and the Hollywood Reporter.
During the 2023-2024 season, besides her two orchestras, she will be conducting the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Eugene Symphony (Oregon), the West Virginia Symphony, the Orchestre National Avignon Provence (France), the University of Illinois Orchestra, and promoting “Maestra” in various festivals.
As a dynamic advocate of contemporary music, Brunet has collaborated with composers such as Shawn Okpebholo, Mary D. Watkins, T.J. Cole, Steven Stucky, Michael Daugherty, Shulamit Ran, James Barry, Mary D. Watkins, Loren Loiacono, and Jennifer Higdon, among others.
As an opera and music-theatre conductor, Brunet has conducted Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, and Verdi’s La Traviata.
As a Pops conductor, Brunet has been programming Pops concerts for Holiday Pops, Independence Day, Halloween, Valentine, and some thematic programs, performing indoors and outdoors for up to 6,000 people. She also conducted orchestras during live movie projections.
