Villaume began his musical education at the
Strasbourg Conservatory. He continued his studies in Paris at
Khâgne and the
Sorbonne where he studied literature, philosophy and musicology. At age 21, he became stage manager and dramaturg at the
Opéra National du Rhin, where he met
Spiros Argiris, who was then the music director of the
Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto. Villaume subsequently studied conducting with Argiris, and later became an assistant conductor to
Seiji Ozawa.[1]
Villaume made his American conducting debut in 1990 with Le nozze di Figaro at the Spoleto Festival USA. He was named music director for opera and orchestra of the Spoleto Festival USA in October 2000,[1] and held the post from 2001 to 2010.[2] He made his
Carnegie Hall debut in 2002 conducting the
Montreal Symphony. He first conducted at the
Metropolitan Opera in September 2004 in Madama Butterfly.[3] Villaume first conducted at
Dallas Opera in 1998. He made his debut with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2007. In April 2013, Villaume was named music director of the
Dallas Opera, with immediate effect.[4][5] In November 2015, the Dallas Opera announced that Villaume's contract as music director had been extended through June 2022.
Internationally, Villaume made his
Orchestre de Paris debut in 2000 as well as his debut at the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden conducting Les Contes d'Hoffmann in October 2000. In January 2007 he made his conducting debut at
La Fenice in Venice with
Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto. He became chief conductor of the
Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008,[6] and held the post through 2013.[7] He became chief conductor of the
Slovak Philharmonic in 2009, and held the post through 2016.[7] In October 2014, the
Prague Philharmonia announced the appointment of Villaume as its fourth chief conductor, effective with the 2015-2016 season, with an initial contract of 3 years.[8]
Jules Massenet: Chérubin (Michelle Breedt,
Patrizia Ciofi, Carmela Remigio, Giorgio Surjan, Teresa di Bari, Alessandra Palomba, Nicola Ebau, et al.; Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Lirico di Cagliari
Dynamic CDS 508/1-2 CD and DV 33508 DVD
Jacques Offenbach: La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein (
Lucia Valentini-Terrani, Carlo Allemano, Thomas Morris, Richard Plaza; Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia) Dynamic CDS173 CD
Giacomo Meyerbeer: Il crociato in Egitto (
Michael Maniaci, Patrizia Ciofi, Marco Vinco, Laura Polverelli, Fernando Portari, Iorio Zennaro, Silvia Pasini, Luca Favaron, Emanuele Pedrini; Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Fenice) Dynamic DV 33549 DVD