François-Xavier Roth
François-Xavier Paul Roth (born 6 November 1971) is a French conductor, who founded Les Siècles, an orchestra which performs on instruments appropriate to the period of composition of each piece, from the late Baroque and Classical eras to 20th century music. Biography. Roth is the son of the organist Daniel Roth—the two share the same first name. His brother Vincent is a violist. Before turning to conducting, he was a flautist. Roth graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, where his teachers included Alain Marion for flute and János Fürst for conducting. In 2000 , Roth won the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, which led to a 2-year appointment as Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as an assistant conductor to John Eliot Gardiner. In 2003, he founded Les Siècles, an orchestra which performs on instruments appropriate to the period of composition of each piece, from late Baroque and Classical to 20th century music, such as Ravel. With Les Siècles, he has given concerts in France, Italy, Germany, England and Japan, appearing at the Proms in London. To mark the centenary of "The Rite of Spring" in 2013, the orchestra  performed the work on period instruments at the BBC Proms and the Alte Oper, Frankfurt. Roth and Les Siècles have devised their own television series for France 2 entitled "Presto!", which ran for three years and attracted audiences of over three million viewers. Roth has involved Les Siècles in community music initiatives, including sponsorship of orchestra and choir groups in the Société générale. With Les Siècles, Roth conducted the first revival of 100 years of "Le Timbre d'argent". Roth was Associate Guest Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from 2008 to 2012. He was Music Director of the  Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège (OPL) for the 2009–2010 season. In September 2011, Roth became Principal Conductor of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg. In February 2014, the orchestra announced the extension of Roth's SWR orchestra contract through the 2015–2016 season. In the same month, February 2014, the city of Cologne announced the appointment of Roth as its next "Generalmusikdirektor" (GMD), which includes duties as "Gürzenich-Kapellmeister" and chief conductor of the Cologne Opera, effective 1 September 2015, with an initial contract of 5 years. In October 2018, his contract with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne and the Cologne Opera  was extended to 2022. Roth was the last chief conductor of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, before its merger with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart to form the SWR Symphonieorchester. He conducted the final concert of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg on 17 July 2016 in Freiburg. In March 2017, the London Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of Roth as its new principal guest conductor, effective September 2017. Roth was created a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in the Bastille Day Honours List 2017. In January 2018, Roth was nominated "Artiste associé" at the Philharmonie de Paris , which is also linked to his work with the children's orchestra Démos, an initiative based on the model of El Sistema. Roth's son Félix Roth is a musician and French horn player.