{{short description|French flautist and conductor|bot=PearBOT 5}} {{Other uses|Bender (disambiguation){{!}}Bender}} thumb|260px|Philippe Bender in 2005
'''Philippe Bender''' (born 25 February 1942 in Besançon, France) is a French flautist and conductor.
In 1976, he was appointed artistic director and permanent chef of the {{ill|Orchestre national de Cannes|fr}} He is also titular conductor and artistic director<ref>Philippe Bender, directeur de l'Orchestre Symphonique des Baléares Ciutat de Palma, in [https://archive.today/20120906192234/http://www.prades-festival-casals.com/fpc-5200.php?ArtisteID=322&SID=affacac69b9e1583bff17cb2f529697d www.prades-festival-casals.com]</ref> of the Orchestre symphonique des Baléares<ref name="baleares">[http://www.simfonica-de-balears.com/ Orchestre symphonique des Baléares]</ref> in Palma de Mallorca.
In 2013, he retired and was succeeded by {{ill|Wolfgang Doerner|fr}} as head of the Orchestre national de Cannes.<ref>Emmanuel Momon, ''Après 38 ans à la tête de l'Orchestre Régional de Cannes, Philippe Bender passe le flambeau'', in ''WebTimeMedias'', 19 September 2013, with audio interview, [http://www.webtimemedias.com/article/apres-38-ans-la-tete-de-l%E2%80%99orchestre-regional-de-cannes-philippe-bender-passe-le-flambeau-201 online on www.webtimemedias.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015002841/http://www.webtimemedias.com/article/apres-38-ans-la-tete-de-l%E2%80%99orchestre-regional-de-cannes-philippe-bender-passe-le-flambeau-201 |date=2018-10-15 }}</ref>
== Career == After starting his musical studies in his native city of Besançon, he furthered them at the Conservatoire de Paris where he won three first prizes in 1959.
He studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau, then at the Juilliard School in New York from which he graduated. He was then a concert flutist and won several international competitions: Geneva, Munich, Montreux.
From 1960 to 1968, he pursued a career as a soloist which took him to Switzerland, Germany, Austria before joining the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra where he met Paul Paray. The latter, discovering the musician's gifts as a conductor, encouraged him to take part in international competitions for young conductors.
Winner of the 1968 edition of the Besançon International Music Festival and gold medal at the prestigious 1970 New York Mitropoulos competition, Bender was hired as chief assistant at the New York Philharmonic where he worked under the successive directions of Leonard Bernstein and Pierre Boulez.
Since then, Bender has conducted many Western orchestras, including the American Symphony Orchestra of New York, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande of Geneva and Lausanne, those of Francfort and Baden-Baden, the Hessischer Rundfunk Orchestra, the orchestras of The Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, the New York Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de Paris, the Ensemble instrumental de Paris. At the head of the Orchestra of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he has conducted, a series of concerts in India that brought him in particular to Bombay, New Delhi, and Chennai...
He is also regularly invited to the United States where he conducts various orchestras and participates in many festivals. Bender regularly conducts Spanish orchestras, including the Spanish National Orchestra.
With the Orchestre régional de Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Bender went to Japan, Morocco<ref>Ve Festival international des musiques sacrées de Fès: l'orchestre de Cannes a inauguré la soirée, 29 May 1999, in [http://www.maroc-hebdo.press.ma/MHinternet/Archives375/HTML-375/UnRayonnementMondial.html www.maroc-hebdo.press.ma] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207032437/http://www.maroc-hebdo.press.ma/MHinternet/Archives375/HTML-375/UnRayonnementMondial.html |date=2010-12-07 }}</ref> in the United States, Germany, Austria, Brazil and China for major tours that have taken him to New York, Washington, Tokyo, Osaka, São Paulo, Berlin and Vienna, Shanghai and Beijing.
On November 4, 2007, as part of the ''C'est pas classique'' event, he conducted the Orchestre de Cannes for the Première in France of Paul McCartney's Oratorio ''Ecce Cor Meum'', composed in 2001<ref>André Peyregne, ''Succès de participation pour l'oratorio contemporain - mais de facture classique - ''Ecce Cor Meum'' de l'ex-Beatle Paul McCartney'', in ''Nice-Matin'', 5 November 2007, [http://www.cannes.maville.com/actu/actudet.php?idDoc=462306 online on maville.com]</ref>
On April 14, 2013, he conducted the final concert of the Cannes Orcpaca season, and won a triumph at the Théâtre Croisette in Cannes, for this performance shortly before his retirement with Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 and schumann's Symphony No. 1.<ref name="NM20130418">Aurore Busser, ''Une symphonie a fait "Le Printemps" tant attendu'', in ''Nice-Matin'', 18 April 2013</ref>
On the following 29 September, he conducted the Orcpaca, for a farewell concert<ref>This was only a "goodbye" since the Orchestra's 2013-2014 season program included concerts where he was the guest conductor.</ref> at the Théâtre Debussy of the Palais des Festivals de Cannes, where he invited prestigious soloists who had already played for a long time under his baton: violinist Olivier Charlier, performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto, and clarinetist Michel Lethiec in Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess''. En finale, la salle lui rend une très longue ovation debout et, au cours d'une cérémonie amicale lui suivant, le député maire de Cannes, Bernard Brochand, lui remet la médaille d'Or de la ville de Cannes.<ref>Aurore Busser, "Concert de l'Orcpaca: ''Merci, Philippe Bender!''", in ''Nice-Matin'', 14 October 2013</ref>
== Training and social mission == Bender also fulfils an important social mission, leading the orchestra, or smaller groups, in giving concerts for children in hospitals, the elderly or the disabled<ref>F.B., ''Tiers Temps aime la musique classique'', in ''Nice-Matin'', 16 June 2008</ref> in disadvantaged neighbourhoods<ref>''Dans le cadre de leur « Résidence à Marseille-Quartier Nords » les 40 musiciens de l’Orchestre Régional de Cannes Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur - sous la direction artistique de Philippe Bender - vont investir la Friche la Belle de Mai le temps d’un concert public'', on [http://www.lafriche.org/friche/zdyn1/article.php3?id_article=883 www.lafriche.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081119102951/http://www.lafriche.org/friche/zdyn1/article.php3?id_article=883 |date=2008-11-19 }}</ref> and even in prisons.
He regularly participates in activities in support of the Restos du Cœur by comedian and actor Coluche, giving concerts whose proceeds are entirely donated to the association.<ref>Aurore Busser, ''Mozart's ''Requiem'' for Les Restos du Cœur'', in ''Nice-Matin'', 8 December 2008</ref><ref>Aurore Busser, "Aux Arlucs à Cannes - Un concert généreux : 5590 euros pour les Restos du cœur", in ''Nice-Matin'', 21 December 2009</ref>
In November 2012, he helped to instigate efforts from the musical world in a petition in support of Mexican conductor Rodolfo I. Cazares Solis<ref>''Rodolfo Cazares Solis, chef d'orchestre marié à une iséroise, est l'otage d'un cartel de la drogue au Mexique'', FR3 Alpes, 12 October 2012, [http://alpes.france3.fr/2012/10/12/rodolphe-casarez-119567.html Online on the site of FR3 Alpes]</ref> kidnapped and held prisoner, hostage of a Mexican drug cartel since July 9, 2011.<ref>D.P., ''Le monde musical doit se mobiliser'', in ''Nice-Matin'', 18 November 2012, and interview the day before on ''FR3 Côte d'Azur''</ref>
== Conducting the orchestras of Cannes and Nice == [[File:Cpasclassic2009.jpg|center|600px|thumb|{{center|Bender conducts both orchestras at the ''C'est pas classique'' event, Nice, 2009}}]]
A merger project with the aim of eventually pooling their resources was initiated in 2009 between the {{ill|Orchestre philharmonique de Nice|fr}} and the Orchestre régional de Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.<ref>Emmanuel Maumon, ''Orchestres de Nice et de Cannes : des fiançailles prélude à un mariage de raison'', in ''WebTimeMedias'', 19 July 2009, [http://www.webtimemedias.com/webtimemedias/wtm_article51920.fr.htm online on www.webtimemedias.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090721044221/http://www.webtimemedias.com/webtimemedias/wtm_article51920.fr.htm |date=2009-07-21 }}</ref><ref>F.M., ''Le mariage entre les orchestres de Nice et Cannes est consommé'', ''Nice-Matin'', 13 November 2009</ref> The project was officially abandoned in the course of 2010.
Dyring the final concert of the "C'est pas classique" event in Nice on 8 November 2009, however, the two orchestras performed together under the direction of Bender, performing in front of a very large audience: excerpts from ''West Side Story'' and Mahler's Symphony No 1 last mouvement.<ref>Jean-Pierre Largillet, Nice: 55.000 visiteurs pour "C'est pas classique", in ''WebTimesMedia'', 9 November 2009, [http://www.webtimemedias.com/wtm_article53945.fr.htm?currentrid=b3a3fbd0ada70cd38f4849891a351e08 on line www.webtimemedias.com]{{Dead link|date=January 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
== Awards == * Bender is a gold medalist in the prestigious Mitropoulos competition of New York in 1970. * Bender is Chevalier in the order of the Légion d'honneur. * On January 26, 2005, at the presentation of the Victoire d'honneur<ref>2005 Ceremony of the Victoires de la musique classique: Victoire d'Honneur awarded to the Orchestre régional de Cannes-Provence-Côte d'azur and to his chef Philippe Bender [http://www.telesatellite.com/infos/idisp.asp/i/1637 www.telesatellite.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061120091115/http://www.telesatellite.com/infos/idisp.asp/i/1637 |date=2006-11-20 }}</ref> awarded by the Victoires de la musique classique, Patrick de Carolis and Frédéric Lodéon have honored Bender and the Orchestre Régional de Cannes Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur for all the work done with young people, in the region and internationally.<ref>''Andantino fête la Victoire de la Musique Classique de l’orchestre de Philippe Bender'', ''Le Cannois'', 10 February 2005, online [http://www.lecannois.fr/?mode=fiche&rub=infcan&nb=0310&fichier=infcan.08.txt www.lecannois.fr] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181014164938/http://www.lecannois.fr/?mode=fiche&rub=infcan&nb=0310&fichier=infcan.08.txt |date=2018-10-14 }}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist|20em}}
== External links == * [http://www.orchestre-cannes.com/ Website of the Orchestre de Cannes] {{authority control}}
{{Portal bar|Classical music|France}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bender, Philippe}} Category:1942 births Category:Living people Category:Musicians from Besançon Category:Conservatoire de Paris alumni Category:French classical flautists Category:French male conductors (music) Category:Knights of the Legion of Honour Category:Officers of the Order of Cultural Merit (Monaco) Category:21st-century French conductors (music) Category:21st-century French male musicians Category:21st-century French flautists