French conductor new Scottish Opera music director

Joel-Hornak, who has previously worked with the company as a guest conductor, will  succeed Francesco Corti as the fifth music director in Scottish Opera’s 50-year history.

The Paris-educated musician has built his career in opera houses around the world,  notably conducting Carmen at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater and Werther in Los Angeles.

He will join Scottish Opera in August after conducting Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman in Hong Kong next month.

He said: “I am extremely proud and honoured to become the new music director of  Scottish Opera.

“For a number of years I have had a very strong relationship with this world-renowned company, founded by the great maestro Sir Alexander Gibson.

“I am particularly thrilled, after a life of worldwide travelling, to become a settled part of the Scottish Opera community, and to experience and share with people all around Scotland the fantastic joys and emotions that the great composers have given to us through the wonderful form of art that is opera.”

Joel-Hornak impressed audiences with his conducting of La Traviata in Scottish Opera’s 2008-9 season and last year’s Hansel and Gretel.

The company’s 2013-14 season will be launched in May.

Scottish Opera director Alex Reedijk said: “It is a huge honour for us to have attracted a musician of Emmanuel Joel-Hornak’s calibre to be our music director.

“He brings with him a profound experience of the art form, honed in the opera houses of Europe, North America and Australasia, and a real curiosity about the musical landscape here in Scotland.

“In his previous stays with the company he has helped deliver artistically important productions, and it is this creativity, combined with his passion  for opera and his qualities as a musician and a leader, that makes him such a great fit for Scottish Opera.”