The French Ministry of Culture grants our Music Director this prestigious title for his outstanding artistic merits.
“This distinction means a lot to me. It honours all that I, the son of immigrants, have learned in and from France.” With these words of thanks, our Music Director Alain Altinoglu accepted his recent promotion to the rank of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. The French conductor, ‘Chevalier’ of the same order since 2014, received the title for his extraordinary merits in the field of music. He has led the La Monnaie Orchestra since 2016 and the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt since 2021. This year, he also acquired the artistic direction of the Festival International de Colmar.
Mezzo-soprano and MM Ambassador Nora Gubisch received the same award for her exceptional singing career.
As part of the worldwide Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the façade of La Monnaie was lit up in pink on Sunday, 19 October. Through this symbolic gesture, our house aims to highlight what is still insufficiently known about the disease.
During a literary encounter with J. M. Coetzee on the stage of La Monnaie, Christina Scheppelmann announced that the 2003 Nobel Prize winner in Literature is writing a libretto for a new La Monnaie opera, to be premiered in the 2027–2028 season: Elizabeth Costello in limbo.
Christina Scheppelmann, who became the first female General and Artistic Director of La Monnaie this season, has been nominated for the ELLE Woman of the Year 2025 award.
