Conductor Alain Altinoglu has been reappointed as Music Director of La Monnaie until 2031.
La Monnaie and its teams are delighted to continue their collaboration with Alain Altinoglu for the coming six years, that is, throughout the tenure of Christina Scheppelmann, the new General and artistic director. She and the French conductor have known each other for many years and have already had the opportunity to work together. With this renewed appointment as music director, Alain Altinoglu also wishes to continue his educational role at La Monnaie through Workshops for schoolchildren, Family concerts and Open rehearsals for young people while also remaining involved in the MM Academy.
Christina Scheppelmann: ‘As the new general and artistic director of La Monnaie, it was very important for me to keep Alain Altinoglu on as the music director of this opera house. Extending his contract was one of the first things I did when I was appointed. La Monnaie is fortunate to have a music director who is not only a great conductor but also a fabulous artist with a passion for music and opera and who is loved by musicians and audiences alike. We have known each other since 2001 and the fact that our paths are crossing here now, 24 years later is fate! I am very excited and grateful that his reappointment will coincide with my tenure.’
Alain Altinoglu: ‘I am truly delighted to continue my collaboration with La Monnaie until 2031. I am sincerely proud on everything we have achieved together with the orchestra, the chorus, and our teams over the past years, and I look forward to carrying on this inspiring work and creating moving moments for our cherished audience. I am also very pleased to work alongside Christina Scheppelmann, whom I have known for many years, as the new director.’
Since his first appointment in January 2016, Alain Altinoglu has conducted ‘his’ orchestra in several acclaimed opera productions while exploring a vast symphonic repertoire. The past two seasons will be remembered for the musical triumph of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, which highlighted the exceptional quality of La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and the work achieved with its music director over the past ten years. This season, Alain Altinoglu will conduct Verdi’s Falstaff and the Brussels premiere of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini at La Monnaie, while will also conduct three symphonic concerts at Bozar, featuring works by Ravel, Berlioz and Grieg, Richard Strauss and Tchaikovsky, among others.
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.
On 29 September 2025, the façade of La Monnaie will turn red for World Heart Day. With this symbolic gesture, our opera house joins a global movement raising awareness about cardiovascular diseases.
