BENOIT GAUTHIER
CONDUCTOR
Biography
Benoit Gauthier is a Canadian conductor acclaimed for the intensity and depth of his interpretations. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Jean-Marie Beaudet Award in Orchestral Conducting from the Canada Council for the Arts, and in 2025 he was named one of the CBC’s “30 Classical Musicians Under 30 to Watch.”
He recently made his New York debut at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, where Phindie wrote: “Gauthier clearly had a sense of the weight of the material, and had the requisite authority to guide the Curtis orchestra into carrying that weight” (2024). He has also conducted the National Arts Centre Orchestra (2025), the Quebec Symphony Orchestra (2024), the Laval Symphony Orchestra (2023 and 2025), the Windsor Symphony Orchestra (2026), and Orchestre de l’Agora (2026), and will soon make his debuts with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre philharmonique du Québec, and the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra (North Carolina). He is currently a finalist for the positions of Music Director of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, reflecting growing recognition of his artistic leadership across North America.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Benoit Gauthier served as a Conducting Fellow and studied with internationally renowned musicians and pedagogues including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Ford Mylius Lallerstedt, Jim Ross, Robert Spano, Michael Stern, Noah Bendix-Balgley, and Yuja Wang. His artistic and communicative strengths, noted by both colleagues and teachers, led to his invitation to teach two conducting courses there during the 2025–2026 academic year.
He previously completed studies in flute with Jacinthe Forand, and in conducting with Gilles Auger at the Conservatoire de musique de Québec. He has also participated in masterclasses with Alexander Shelley, Marin Alsop, and Bramwell Tovey. From 2021 to 2024, he was a member of the inaugural cohort of the Orchestre Métropolitain’s Conducting Academy under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
Deeply committed to his community, he founded the Orchestre symphonique de la Côte-Nord (OSCN) at the age of 16 in the only region of Quebec that did not yet have a professional orchestra. Now a recognized institution, the OSCN presents major works from the repertoire (The Rite of Spring, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, a Beethoven cycle from 2023 to 2025) and develops touring projects adapted to the region’s geographic realities (Requiem de guérison tour in 2026, Affluence with the Orchestre du Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean in 2022, Un vent de Renouveau in 2023).
In April 2025, he conducted the premiere of Requiem de guérison by Innu composer Alexis Vollant, a powerful work for soloists, choir, and orchestra dedicated to the children of residential schools, presented in collaboration with the OSCN. A chamber orchestra version will tour the Côte-Nord in May 2026. Gauthier is also actively engaged in contemporary creation, having commissioned works premiered by the OSCN such as Nordicité (2022) by Martin Caron, Deux abstractions lyriques (2025) by Charles-Vincent Lemelin, and Suite symphonique sur Cyrano de Bergerac (2023) by Simon Desbiens.
A versatile musician, he is also a pianist and passionate vocal collaborator. He has studied with Miloš Repický, Wolfgang Holzmair, Christine Brewer, François Le Roux, Olivier Godin, and Jennifer Larmore, leading to engagements as assistant conductor in opera productions such as The Comet / Poppea by George Lewis and The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček with the Curtis Opera Theatre (2024), as well as Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini with the Berlin Opera Academy (2022).
Benoit Gauthier is the recipient of the 2023 Emerging Artistic Talent Award from Culture Côte-Nord and has received numerous grants, notably from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the AIDA Fund, and the Jeunesses musicales du Canada Foundation, as a conductor, flutist, and composer.
© Maxime Tremblay
« Gauthier clearly had a sense of the weight of the material, and had the requisite authority to guide the Curtis orchestra into carrying that weight. The sense of conductor and orchestra performing together, rather than one laying track for the other to guide the handcar over, was strong. »
Phindie (14/12/2024)
« Benoit Gauthier led the orchestra in a crisp androusing performance of this optimstic (and substantial) one-movement piece, sailing smoothly between alternating time signatures and moods bright and lyrical. »
Blog Critics (27/11/2024)
« Gauthier has an economical conducting style, and he used clear, precise gestures to communicate his intentions to the orchestra. Little more was required from him as drama and excitement were on hand from the start [...]. »
Seen and Heard International (30/11/2024)
© Curtis Institute of Music
