Francois Pantillon (b.1928) comes from a prominent family of musicians from La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, and received his initial training in violin from his father. After his diploma he joined the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, where he graduatesd with highest honours and was awarded the Van Hall Prize for violin. He hen turned to conducting skills, working with Paul van Kempen at the Academia Chigi di Siena, with Franco Ferrara in Hilversum, and with Herbert von Karajan at the Lucerne Festival. After engaging him as leader of the Festival Orchestra, von Karajan soon encouraged him to conduct.

From 1972 to 1997 he was the conductor and artistic manager of the Thuner Stadtorchester, with whom he performed more than 200 concerts. In 1965 he founded the professional chamber orchestra Capella Bernensis with whom he toured Switzerland and other European countries on several occasions.

The multi-faceted artist is frequently invited abroad as guest conductor, having toured France, Italy, Spain, England, Holland, Belgium and Poland, where he was invited to conduct various Philharmonic Orchestras every year from 1973 to 1988. In London he celebrated successes with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Spezializing in the direction of oratorios, he is recognized as an outstanding interpreter of classic and romantic literature, but is equally devoted to modern composers, having performed Swiss and Polish premieres of Arthur Honegger, Frank Martin and Heinrich Sutermeister works in particular.

Pantillon is also a noted composer. His first oratorio, Clameurs du Monde (Clamors of the World), written in 1986, was very warmly received and noted immediately in the musical encyclopedia, Oratorien der Welt (Oratorios of the World), by Prof. Dr. Kurt Pahlen of Vienna. It was presented on Swiss television and performed by Barbara Hendricks and the Slovakian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Oliver Donanyi throughout the major cities of Switzerland in 1991 as part of a national celebration commemorating the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation. For the same jubilee the city of Bern produced for the first time his opera, Die Richterin (the Lady Judge), with numerous performances.

Soon thereafter he turned to composing chamber music, notably a sextet Gaudium and the Trio 1029 for violin, cello and piano, a song cycle Instants…, a brilliant cantata for chamber choir and piano, entitled Daphne, a Missa Brevis di San Pedro, and a Sinfonietta for orchestra. His greatest success, however, came with his Christmas oratorio, Bethlehem, which debuted in Bern in 1995, and was subsequently performed in Rome and in many Swiss cities, including Geneva. For the Millenium, his Te Deum 2000 premiered at Bern Cathedral as part of a Three Te Deum concert that also presented Haendel’s Dettinger Te Deum and Bruckner’s Te Deum.

The style of Francois Pantillon lies in the convergence of tonality with polytonality. He pursues expressiveness in modernism through a spectrum of color in which the avant-gard mixes with post-impressionist harmonies. His melodies are polished and his orchestration refined. Pantillon himself says, ” Mon souhait est d’atteindre le coeur de l’auditeur en le remplissant d’ombre et de lumière. Pour moi, la composition est un acte de réflexion et d’amour, qui tend la main à l’humanité. ” (My wish is to reach the heart of the listener in filling it with shadow and light. For me, composition is an act of reflection and of love, which stretches out its hand to humanity.)