Guillaume Pirard

Driven by a deep belief in the power of collaborative music making, Guillaume Pirard pursues a multi-faceted career as a conductor, violinist and educator.  Pirard has conducted the Orlando Philharmonic, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, New York University and Cornell University Orchestras, Ensemble X, the Philharmonic of Moravia, the Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra, the Lviv Philharmonic, the Mannes School of Music Opera and the Mannes Orchestra.  He is currently the Music Director of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra.

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A founding member and co-concertmaster of The Knights, Pirard toured extensively throughout the United States and Europe with performances at the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Muzikverein in Vienna, and major festival appearances at Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, Skaneateles, the Festival-de-Paques in Aix-en-Provence and the Salzburg Festspiele. He has recorded with the ensemble on SONY Classical and Warner Music.

Passionate about historical performance practices, Pirard studied in Den Haag and Brussels with some of the masters of the romantic, classical and baroque styles such as Vera Beths, Mira Glodeanu and Anner Bylsma. He has played in various period ensembles and chamber music series in Europe and the United-States, such as the Helicon Foundation, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, the Staunton Festival, Les Muffatti and the Context series at Rice University.  Pirard has also performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, A Far Cry, the Sejong Soloists, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie ,and with renowned musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, Gil Shaham and Reinbert De Leeuw to name a few.

Born in Belgium, Pirard studied at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music, receiving a First Prize in violin performance at the age of 16. He continued his studies at the Juilliard School with Hyo Kang and Dorothy Delay. He earned a Masters Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the New School, under the tutelage of David Hayes. Pirard has served on the faculty at New York University, Ithaca College and Cornell University.