Simon-Pierre Bestion

Simon-Pierre Bestion is a french musician, conductor and keyboardist, key figure of a new generation of artists fascinated by “total art”. Trained at Nantes CRR in Michel Bourcier and Valérie Fayet classes, at  Boulogne-Billancourt CRR and at Lyon CNSMD under Nicole Corti, his musical studies led him to receive invaluable advice from a number of leading figures, and, in 2015, to create the company with which he would deploy his unique vision : La Tempête. 

The artistic work of Simon-Pierre Bestion is marked by a rich musical legacy, nourished by extra western traditions, rituals and creation. Heavily influenced by the works of composers such as Jean-Louis Florentz or Maurice Ohana, he defends a musical approach in which the interpreter must have his place in the incarnation and appropriation of sound as a material. In recent years, his thirst for orchestration and the inspiration he draws from the spirit of the works he is working on have given the public the chance to discover original projects, often the result of ambitious pairings and encounters between works that were, on the face of it, far apart. 

In recent years, his thirst for orchestration and the inspiration he draws from the spirit of the works he is working on have given the public the chance to discover original projects, often the result of ambitious pairings and encounters between works that were, on the face of it, far apart. 

Simon-Pierre regularly collaborates with other artists, notably, these last seasons with director Maëlle Dequiedt for a production with the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, or with visual artist Chloé Bensahel for an installation-performance at the Palais de Tokyo. He is also a guest conductor for various productions, in 2022 at the Opéra de Lyon with director Katie Mitchell, or with the Radio-France choir for a contemporary creation. In 2023, he was associate artist at the prestigious Utrecht Early Music Festival in the Netherlands. With La Tempête, he has been associated for many years with the Théâtre Impérial - Opéra de Compiègne. Since 2025, he is also associated, as Artistic Director of the company, to the MC:2 Grenoble and the Scène Nationale d'Orléans.

This, Simon-Pierre will direct two productions at the Opéra National de Lyon including Monterverdi’s Incoronazione di Poppea, directed by Tatjana Gürbaca.