Emil de Cou

Who is Emil de Cou?

Emil de Cou is an American conductor who became associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in September 2003 and has been an active participant in a wide range of NSO performances and events since his debut at Wolf Trap in 2000. He has led the orchestra on residency tours in five states, in subscription concerts at the Kennedy Center and on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol Building. In 2005 de Cou was named NSO at Wolf Trap Festival Conductor. He has most recently been named the music director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet starting with the 2011-2012 season. As such, in 2013, he was named by the New York Times critic Alastair Macaulay to be "probably...America’s finest ballet conductor."

In 2007 de Cou conducted a concert with the NSO @ Wolf Trap in collaboration with NASA. It was a program titled "Fantastic Planet - a symphonic video spectacular" and incorporated the first ever in-time downloadable podcast to accompany a symphony orchestra concert. NASA's images spanned from the creation of the Earth and deep space to videos of life underwater, glaciers crashing into frozen seas, western deserts and canyons, volcanos and hurricanes which were projected overhead with music performed by the NSO and the Soldier's Chorus of the United States Army Field Band. The Washington Post wrote in an article in the Technology section; "De Cou was conducting another of his multimedia experiments aimed at supercharging the classical concert experience and drawing in new listeners. As the NSO's Wolf Trap conductor, he has mounted two wildly successful concerts of video-game music in the past year, and last summer performed the music to The Wizard of Oz as the film played on a huge screen above the orchestra. The shows drew thousands of new listeners".