Maxime Pascal quickly distinguished himself as one of the brightest performers of 20th-century and contemporary music of his generation. From the moment he entered the Conservatoire de Paris, his journey has been marked by a curiosity for sound exploration. He has explored a vast repertoire, ranging from the classics to works by 20th-century composers such as Morton Feldman, Gérard Grisey, and Pierre Boulez.

In 2008, he co-founded Le Balcon, an innovative collective distinguished by its amplified concerts, allowing the audience to dive “inside the sound.” Le Balcon has become a key player in the contemporary scene, dedicating itself to ambitious projects, notably the monumental Licht cycle by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Maxime Pascal considers this cycle to be an important work in his life and plans to present it in its entirety for the composer’s centenary in 2028.

His international career includes collaborations with prestigious orchestras, such as the Vienna Philharmonic, with whom he conducted Bohuslav Martinů’s La Passion Grecque at the Salzburg Festival. He won the Österreichischen Musiktheaterpreise for Best Musical Direction for this production in 2024.

Other collaborations include Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy with director Benjamin Lazar, Lulu by Berg with Marlène Monteiro Freitas, and L’opéra de quat’sous by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht with Thomas Ostermeier, the Comédie-Française, and Le Balcon.

In 2024-2025, he will conduct the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the La Scala Orchestra, and the Deutsche Oper Orchestra. Since the beginning of the season, he has been the musical director of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.

Maxime Pascal has performed with his ensemble Le Balcon at the Festival de Saint-Denis in 2017 for Mahler’s The Song of the Night and in 2022 for The Song of the Earth.