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.

He was appointed Dramaturg of the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg at the age of 21, and during his tenure there 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 début at the 1990 Spoleto Festival USA with Le nozze di Figaro.

Emmanuel Villaume has appeared with leading opera companies in the United States, throughout Europe and in Japan, including a series of engagements at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at Covent Garden in London.

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. His Il crociato in Egitto opened the 2007 season at La Fenice in Venice.