Pierre-André Valade was born in Brive, France in 1959. In 1991 he co-founded the Paris based Ensemble Court-Circuit of which he is Music Director.

Pierre-André Valade is especially well-known and admired for his performances of repertoire from the 20th and 21st centuries, and receives regular invitations from major festivals and orchestras in countries such as England, Germany, Italy, Austria, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Australia, as well as his native France. His recording of Grisey’s Les Espaces Acoustiques won both the Diapason d’or de l’année 1999 and the Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros.

In the past few years he has conducted many different orchestras including the Philharmonique de Radio France, Philharmonie de Lorraine, Saarbrucken Radio Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Accademia Nationale di Santa Cecilia Rome, Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, Gulbenkian Lisbon, as well as members of the Berlin Philharmonic at the Salzburg Easter Festival, performing music by Pierre Boulez. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2001, and has also appeared at the Aldeburgh, Lucerne and Huddersfield Contemporary Music festivals.

Recent and future plans include concerts with the Philharmonia London, Tonhalle Zurich, Chicago Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, National Symphony of Ireland, RAI Torino, Northern Sinfonia, Orchestre National de Lyon, Ensemble InterContemporain, London Sinfonietta and the Opera du Rhin, Strasbourg. In September 2003 he jointly conducted the world premiere of Birtwistle’s Theseus Game with Ensemble Modern, a piece he continues to tour throughout Europe.

In January 2001 he was awarded Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture.