After more than forty years at the head of Orchestre National de Lille, which he created in 1976, Jean-Claude Casadesus, who remains the founding director, continues to appear in three series per season all while pursuing his international career. He remains artistic director of the Lille Piano(s) Festival.

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The orchestra, under his direction, has travelled the world (32 countries on 4 continents – USA, Latin America, Africa, Russia, China and Kazakhstan) and has conducted an exemplary policy of spreading and raising awareness among children and audiences who do not have access to music.

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Ardent defender of contemporary music, (he studied orchestral conducting with Pierre Boulez), he has set up residencies for composers also chairing the association Musique Nouvelle en Liberté since 2001.

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His discographies of over thirty CDs with Orchestre  National de Lille was unanimously hailed by the public and critics. His latest recordings Ein Heldenleben by Richard Strauss and Symphony No. 2 by Mahler received an enthusiastic reception. They are followed by Mahler’s Das Lied von der.