François-Xavier Roth

François-Xavier Roth is a French conductor, the son of the organist Daniel Roth. He began as a flautist, studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 2000 won the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, which led to a post as assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2003 he founded Les Siècles, an orchestra that plays each part of its repertoire, from the Baroque to the early twentieth century, on instruments of the appropriate period, and with which he has made a speciality of French music from Berlioz to Ravel and Stravinsky’s ballets. He was principal conductor of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg from 2011, became General Music Director of the City of Cologne in 2015, directing both the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera, and was named principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2017. He is also a regular advocate of new music. Since the 2025/26 season he has been chief conductor and artistic director of the SWR Symphonieorchester in Stuttgart.