Samuel Couffignal

Samuel Couffignal studies orchestral conducting in the class of Siméon Pironkoff and Opernkorrepetition in Andreas Henning’s class in the University of music and Performing Arts of Vienna. He has studied piano, orchestral conducting and choral conducting since he was a teenager, enabling him to embrace an eclectic repertoire, rich in collaborations with various soloists such as Éric Franceries, Thomas Ospital, Carine Zarifian, Jérôme Pinget and Emma Gibout, among others. He has taken part in various masterclasses with Bernard Tétu, Peter Hanke and Henry Challet, and with the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, the Chœur de l'Orchestre de Paris and the Opéra de Baugé. He has also benefited from the invaluable teaching of Philippe Auguin, Jean-Bernard Matter, Marie Jacquot, Marin Alsop and Hossein Pishkar. Samuel Couffignal has also been hired as Hossein Pishkar's assistant for a revival of Bizet's Carmen, staging by Barrie Kosky at the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen in 2022. He recently worked as assistant to Marie Jacquot with the Wiener Symphoniker at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. Constantly seeking to promote the contemporary music repertoire as well as the creation of new works, he has worked with composers such as Franck Vaudray, German Toro Perez, Mark André, Anthony Girard, Nava Hemyari and the specialists ensemble Platypus, Phace, Webern Ensemble Wien. He was also part of the Ligeti100 project in Budapest in 2023 and has been invited to conduct at the Vienna Summer Music Festival the same year. Alongside his activities as a musician, Samuel Couffignal is regularly invited as a speaker, on subjects related to orchestral conducting, leadership and project management, notably at Mixit 2017, Paris Container Day, Agile clubs and the Centre des Jeunes Dirigeants. Samuel Couffignal currently is the musical director of the Association Meltin’Cordes and conducts the Akademisches Symphonie Orchester of Vienna.