Orchestre National de France Embarks on U.S. Tour Led by Cristian Macelaru, with Daniil Trifonov

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Orchestre National de France Embarks on U.S. Tour

Music Director Cristian Macelaru Leads Three Performances
with GRAMMY®-Winning Pianist Daniil Trifonov

First Carnegie Hall Performance by ONF Since 2016

Program of French Repertoire Features
Works by Ravel in Composer’s 150th Anniversary Year

November 7, 2025 | Mechanics Hall, Worcester, MA
November 8, 2025 | Tilles Center, Brookville, NY
November 9, 2025 | Carnegie Hall, New York, NY

New York, NY (September 15, 2025) – From November 7 to 9, 2025, Music Director Cristian Macelaru leads the Orchestre National de France on its first U.S. tour in nearly 10 years, performing with GRAMMY® Award–winning pianist Daniil Trifonov in three concerts culminating in a much-anticipated return to Carnegie Hall. In a program comprising all French repertoire, the orchestra performs Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, along with Elsa Barraine’s Symphony No. 2 and two works by Ravel: Concerto in G and Daphnis et Chloe: Suite No. 2 – with Trifonov as soloist on both of the program’s concerti. The tour begins on Friday, November 7, 2025 at 8:00pm with a concert presented by Music Worcester at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA; followed by performances on Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 7:00pm at Tilles Center in Brookville, NY; and on Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 2:00pm at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage in New York City.

“The mission of the Orchestre National de France is to be the premier ambassadors of French music and French culture,” Macelaru said, “and it is so important and vital to who we are that we can share the beauty and the extraordinary artistry of composers like Maurice Ravel, whom we are celebrating this year. Having performed with Daniil Trifonov for more than ten years, it’s a special joy to have not just a friend on stage with me, but truly one of the greatest artists alive today.

“As I’ve said many many times,” he continued, “I was attracted to this orchestra by their understanding of what we call the ‘French sound.’ The composers of French heritage were able to create music that speaks through colors and gestures, surrounding us with this sound that is very beautiful and fleeting, and at the same time transparent and changing constantly. It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring this orchestra to the US and allow its music lovers to embrace this very unique, honest and truthful presentation of the music.”

Founded in 1934 and prized as France’s leading orchestra, the Orchestre National de France first toured in North America in 1948. The orchestra last performed at Carnegie Hall in 2016. They previously collaborated with Trifonov in December 2022 for a German tour of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Philharmonie in Cologne, the Isarphilharmonie in Munich, and the Philharmonie in Berlin. 

The orchestra and Macelaru recently released an album of Ravel’s symphonic works on the Naïve label, celebrating this quintessential French repertoire on the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Orchestre National de France U.S. Tour

Friday, November 7, 2025 at 8:00pm
Mechanics Hall | Worcester, MA
Link: www.musicworcester.org/event/orchestre-national-de-france-daniil-trifonov-piano/

Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 7:00pm
Tilles Center | Brookville, NY 
Link: www.tillescenter.org/event/orchestre-national-de-france

Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 2:00pm 
Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage | New York, NY 
Link: www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2025/11/09/orchestre-national-de-france-0200pm

Program:
Elsa Barraine – Symphony No. 2
Camille Saint-Saëns – Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op.?22
Maurice Ravel – Concerto in G
Maurice Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2

Daniil Trifonov, piano
Cristian Macelaru, conductor

About Orchestre National de France (ONF)
The Orchestre National de France is both an established authority and a dynamic force in the interpretation of French music. Its international tours have made it a flagship for French culture across the world, while its presence throughout France, reinforced by vibrant educational programmes, has cemented its relationship with a diversity of national audiences.

A Radio France ensemble, the Orchestre National de France was founded in 1934 as the country’s first full-time symphony orchestra. Its mission to serve the symphonic repertoire was furthered by radio broadcasts of its concerts, and it soon achieved an enviable reputation. 

After the Second World War, Manuel Rosenthal, André Cluytens and Jean Martinon, among others, enriched this tradition, magnified by successive musical directors (Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, Daniele Gatti, Emmanuel Krivine) and regular guests (Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa...). On September 1, 2020, Cristian Macelaru took over as Music Director of the Orchestre National de France. 

In the course of the 20th century the Orchestre National de France gave the premieres of a number of major works, including Le Soleil des eaux by Boulez, Déserts by Varèse, Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony (French premiere), Xenakis’s Jonchaies and the majority of Dutilleux’s large-scale compositions.

Numerous recordings by the orchestra are commercially available. The Orchestre National, under the baton of Louis Langrée, recorded Ravel's two piano concertos with pianist Alexandre Tharaud, and to mark the centenary of the death of Camille Saint-Saëns, a complete set of symphonies conducted by Cristian Macelaru for Warner Classics. Finally, a boxed set of George Enescu's symphonies conducted by Cristian Macelaru has been released in 2024 by Deutsche Grammophon, and a box set of Maurice Ravel's orchestral works by the Orchestre National de France and Cristian Macelaru has been released in September 2025 by Naïve Records.

Cristian Macelaru and the Orchestre National de France recently appeared at the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony, which was broadcast to 1.5 billion viewers worldwide. Learn more at www.maisondelaradioetdelamusique.fr/formations/orchestre-national-de-france.

About Cristian Macelaru 
GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor Cristian Macelaru is Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival and Competition, Music Director of the Orchestre National de France, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Interlochen Center for the Arts’ World Youth Symphony Orchestra, Music Director and Conductor of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and Distinguished Visiting Artist at The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He also serves as Artistic Partner of the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne, where he served as Chief Conductor from the 2019/2020 through 2024/25 seasons.

2025/26 marks Macelaru’s inaugural season as Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where his programming reflects his expansive artistic vision and dedication to both tradition and innovation. Macelaru launches the season with a blended program of classical masterworks and contemporary pieces, pairing George Gershwin’s Concerto in F, featuring pianist Hélène Grimaud, with Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier Suite and Anna Clyne's Abstractions. In March 2026, Macelaru and the Interlochen Center for the Arts embark on a tour celebrating the upcoming centennial of Interlochen and the 250th anniversary of American independence, with concerts beginning at the Center’s home in Interlochen, Michigan, and continuing through Detroit, Philadelphia and Boston. Students will perform a program featuring a new cello concerto by Wynton Marsalis, with Yo-Yo Ma as soloist.

With the George Enescu International Festival, Macelaru curates a four-week concert schedule highlighting world-class orchestras in multiple international premieres and interpretations of classical music’s finest repertoire. He conducts the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in the festival’s opening-night concert in August 2025. Beginning at the festival, Macelaru conducts the Orchestre National de France on a tour through Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Austria, featuring violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. In November, Orchestre National de France takes on a three-night tour in the United States with pianist Daniil Trifonov, culminating in an appearance at Carnegie Hall. In another Enescu Festival highlight, Macelaru conducts the WDR Sinfonieorchester in a concert performance of Strauss’s Salome. Later in the season, he conducts the orchestra in three concert programs in Cologne and across western Germany. Macelaru’s guest engagements include debuts with the Münchner Philharmoniker and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, as well as returns with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Czech Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony.

Macelaru’s previous seasons include European engagements with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Concertgebouworkest, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Berlin, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In North America, he has led the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and The Cleveland Orchestra. Macelaru maintains an especially close collaboration with the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he previously held the position of Conductor-in-Residence for three seasons. He is equally at home as a conductor of opera, with career highlights including productions of Don Giovanni with the Houston Grand Opera and Madama Butterfly with Opera Na?ionala Bucure?ti. 

In 2020, Macelaru received a GRAMMY® Award for conducting the Decca Classics recording of Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto with Nicola Benedetti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has released an array of albums including the complete symphonies of Saint-Saëns on Warner Classics with the Orchestre National de France as well as recordings featuring works by Bartók, Dvorák and Rachmaninoff on Linn Records with the WDR Sinfonieorchester. Macelaru’s Linn Records album, Brahms: Piano Concertos with Simon Trpceski and the WDR Sinfonieorchester, was featured in Classic FM’s November 2023 “Album of the Week” as well as BBC Music Magazine’s January 2024 “Concerto Choice.” His highly anticipated recording of Enescu’s Symphonies 1-3 and the composer’s two Romanian Rhapsodies with the Orchestre National de France was released in April 2024 on Deutsche Grammophon. The album won the 2024 Diapason d’Or of the Year and 2024 Choc Classica of the Year, and was featured on WRTI’s June 2024 “Best Classical Music Albums Released in 2024 (So Far)”.

Macelaru is dedicated to opening classical music to a broader audience through accessibility and education. In his role as Chief Conductor with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, he created the ensemble’s Kurz und Klassic program, in which he shares personal insight into each of the major compositions chosen for performance. This video series has built a significant following, a testament to Macelaru's continued impact in bringing audiences closer to the music. With the Orchestre National de France, he created a new series of concerts, L’œuvre augmentée, conceived to deepen patrons’ appreciation of the music by offering insights into the themes and backgrounds of the works presented. Most recently, in his Artistic Director role with the George Enescu Festival and Competition, Macelaru has created a new series of concerts for children as part of an initiative to enrich and modernize the festival. Emphasizing contemporary compositions, these programs enhance listeners’ appreciation of the music while promoting social values of equality, empowerment and diversity. He has also increased invitations for women conductors and implemented mental and physical well-being sessions for Competition participants. Through a historic collaboration with organizations including Romania’s Special Olympics, Macelaru and the Festival are striving to modernize Romania’s concert halls to make them more accessible. For the 2024 George Enescu International Competition, Macelaru and competition organizers received a record-breaking 555 applications from 57 countries.

With the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Macelaru has helped nurture the collaborative spirit underlying the festival’s core mission. Using his leadership role as a platform for engagement, he has brought artists, audience members and festival executives into a shared creative process through open rehearsals and interaction with the composers in residence. Through the Cabrillo Emerging Black Composers Prize, Macelaru and Cabrillo have partnered with the Emerging Black Composers Project, a ten-year commitment to spotlight early-career Black American composers and their music.

A champion of commissioning and premiering the music of today, Macelaru has commissioned premieres from over 52 composers across his titled positions in Paris, Cologne and Cabrillo. This illustrious group of composers includes Wynton Marsalis, Tan Dun, Gabriela Lena Frank, Jennifer Higdon, Jake Heggie, Nico Muhly, Sean Shepherd and Gabriella Smith.

Macelaru devotes significant time to mentoring young musicians in his capacity as an educator, continuing the great legacy of the Cabrillo Conductors / Composers Workshop that brings together the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra and leading faculty with early-career conductors and composers for a professional training program focused on the creation and performance of new music. He also holds annual conducting masterclasses in Timi?oara with the Romanian Chamber Orchestra and each year calls for scores from young Romanian composers. More than 40 compositions thus far have been written through this initiative. This past season, Macelaru also worked with young musicians during his residency at the Kronberg Academy in Germany.

Macelaru was born in Timi?oara, Romania and comes from a musical family. As the youngest of ten children, all of whom received instrumental lessons at an early age, Macelaru excelled on the violin. His studies took him from Romania to the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, University of Miami in Florida and Rice University in Houston, where he studied conducting with Larry Rachleff. He then deepened his knowledge at Tanglewood Music Center and Aspen Music Festival in masterclasses with David Zinman, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Oliver Knussen and Stefan Asbury.

Macelaru was the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Miami Symphony Orchestra and made his Carnegie Hall debut with that orchestra at the age of 19. He also played in the first violin section of the Houston Symphony for two seasons. His international career was launched in 2012 when he was asked to step in for Pierre Boulez with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During that same year, he received the Solti Emerging Conductor Award, followed by the Solti Conducting Award in 2014.

Photo credit: Christophe Abramowitz

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