In the spirit of the British fellowship model, which OPRL conductor Gergely Madaras appreciates for its wealth of exchanges and spirit of collegiality, he took the initiative in 2019 and created the position of assistant conductor at the OPRL. The assistant conductor is appointed for one season and recruited through a comparative examination. At the audition held in April in Liège, young Swiss conductor Laurent Zufferey (28) emerged as the winner.
As assistant conductor, he will assist Gergely Madaras with his concerts and recordings with the OPRL and Zufferey will also have the opportunity to work with various guest conductors (including Lionel Bringuier and Elena Schwarz). Laurent Zufferey will independently conduct the OPRL for various educational projects and two concerts from the Music Factory series.
Laurent Zufferey
Laurent Zufferey was born in Sion and studied percussion and conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (with Mark Heron and Clark Rundell). In the "post-Covid era" he was invited by Paavo Järvi for the Tonhalle Academie in Zürich, where he won the audience prize. Subsequently, he was invited by Teodor Currentzis for his residency at MusicAeterna at the KKL in Lucerne, where he had the opportunity to conduct during the public masterclass. Artistic and musical director of the Valéik Philharmonik (Sion) since 2021, he performs in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Germany, Norway, Czech Republic… For the 2022-2023 season he is also appointed assistant conductor of the Basel Sinfonietta (dir. Baldur Brönniman).
