Born in France, Chloé moved to the UK to train as a viola player at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Growing up playing in orchestras she always aspired to being a conductor and went on to study conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music (2015-17) where she was awarded the Kennedy scholarship. She has performed and conducted with orchestras all over the world and was appointed Taki Alsop Fellow in 2019-21, and a Dudamel Fellow with the LA Philharmonic for the 21/22 season

One of Chloé’s biggest musical inspirations is nature; from tree shapes, to wind, clouds, mountains, the sound of rivers and the colours of autumn. Every time she travels to a different country the varied landscapes inspire her to create new musical textures. As well as nature, food is also a source of inspiration; she often relates musical texture to honey for a round sound, and bitterness of sound to the taste of lemon for example.

Chloé founded her own London-based Orchestra in 2012, Arch Sinfonia. This chamber orchestra is named ‘Arch’ after its intention to build bridges between orchestra and audience. The orchestra expresses this in many forms, from players sitting amidst the audience, to the audience voting on the next programme at every concert. The aim is for the audience to really feel part of the performance.

Outside of music, Chloé loves to walk. Living in London, this often means finding solace in the capitals’ many parks, whilst when travelling she loves to go on long hikes. Modern art inspires her with a trip to the Tate Modern being one of her favourite things to do. And she loves the London food scene, her favourite dish being Pad Thai!

Success to Chloé means changing what classical music can do and creating hope. It is important to her to embrace concerts as a musical journey: transporting the audience (and orchestra) via the metaphorical motorways and smaller roads of a piece. She believes that everyone is travelling together and will experience different emotions along the journey, and that her role is to gently guide the players and audience through her gestures.

Join Chloé van Soeterstède for Schumann’s Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Brahms’ Symphony No.1 in her first programme as Principal Guest Conductor (27 Nov  & 28 Nov).

She returns in March for Brahms’ Tragic Overture, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 and Schumann’s Symphony No.2 (12 Mar).