French conductor Emmanuel Villaume is in his eighth season as Spoleto Festival USA's Music Director for Opera & Orchestra. During that time he has led numerous symphonic concerts and opera performances for Spoleto Festival USA, including a noted Mahler symphonies cycle, the American première of Henze's Der Prinz von Homburg, and acclaimed productions of Manon Lescaut, Der fliegende Holländer, Lakmé, Ariadne auf Naxos and Don Giovanni.

In the 2007-2008 season, Maestro Villaume's performances included Ariane et Barbe Bleue at the Teatro Regio di Torino, Meyerbeer's Il Crociato in Egitto for the opening of the 2007 season at La Fenice in Venice, La Bohéme for Washington National Opera's 2007-08 season opening, Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera and Thaïs at La Fenice. In 2008-2009 he will conduct Les Contes d'Hoffmann at the Teatro Real, Madrid, Manon at the Chicago Lyric (with Natalie Dessay), Tosca in Berlin and Carmen in Los Angeles.

He conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and Vienna in concert performances with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón, the Orchestre National de Belgique with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón at the Festival de Saint-Denis, the Slovak Philharmonic at the Bratislava Festival, the Münchner Rundfunkorchester with Patrizia Ciofi, and the Orchestra Philharmonique de Marseille. He also appears with the North Carolina Symphony and the Juilliard Symphony, and returns to the Chicago and Montreal Symphony orchestras.

During the 2005-06 season he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Samson et Dalila starring Olga Borodina, to the Washington National Opera for L'Elisir d'Amore, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari for Massenet's Cherubin, to the Los Angeles Opera for The Grand Duchess and appeared at the Aspen and Grant Park Music Festivals. Other recent engagements include his debut at the Metropolitan Opera for Madama Butterfly, his return to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for La Rondine with Angela Gheorghiu, and to the Los Angeles Opera for La Bohème starring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna.

Born in Strasbourg in 1964, Emmanuel Villaume began his musical education at the Strasbourg Conservatory and continued his studies in Paris, where he received degrees in literature, philosophy and musicology. He also studied dramatic arts and performed in theatrical productions. The author of noted musicological articles and research papers, he was appointed Dramaturg of the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg at the age of 21. During his tenure there he came to the attention of Spiros Argiris, Music Director of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, who invited him to conduct and narrate Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis in 1987, followed by an invitation to make his American debut at the 1990 Spoleto Festival USA with Le Nozze di Figaro.

Maestro Villaume has appeared with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for Les Contes d'Hoffmann and La Rondine; the Lyric Opera of Chicago for Samson et Dalila; the Washington National Opera for La Rondine, Norma, Le Cid, Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Lucia di Lammermoor; San Francisco Opera for Madama Butterfly; Los Angeles Opera for Les Contes d'Hoffmann, La Rondine and The Grand Duchess; Santa Fe Opera for Carmen; Dallas Opera for Faust and Le Nozze di Figaro; Sarasota Opera for Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Die Zauberflöte and Manon; Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for La Rondine and Faust; Cologne Opera for La Bohème and Werther; Bastille Opera for Rigoletto; Hamburg Staatsoper with Der fliegende Holländer; Toulouse Opera for Mignon; Bonn Opera for La Fanciulla del West; Tokyo Bunka Kaikan for Der Rosenkavalier; Martina Franca Opera for La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein; Montreal Opera for La Vie Parisienne; Opéra Marseilles for Pelléas et Mélisande, Carmen and Norma; Nice Opera for Faust; Monte Carlo Opera for La Périchole and Werther and the Klangbogen Festival in Vienna for Don Quichotte and Goya with Plácido Domingo.

He has led the Montreal Symphony in Montreal and at Carnegie Hall; the Boston Symphony at Symphony Hall and Tanglewood; the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Detroit symphonies; the Minnesota Orchestra; Orchestre de Paris; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Beethovenhalle Orchestra of Bonn; Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra; Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane symphonies; Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra Verdi di Milano; and, in concert, the orchestras of the Bastille Opera, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Teatro alla Scala, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and La Fenice, the latter in a concert performance of Berlioz' Les Troyens.

Emmanuel Villaume holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Indianapolis. He makes his home in Paris and New York.