Her first appointment as assistant conductor in an opera house was at the Opéra et Orchestre de Montpellier, where she worked closely together with James Conlon, Armin Jordan, Emmanuel Krivine and Alain Altinoglu, among others. Opera engagements in recent years included a production of “La Bohème” at the Royal Opera house Covent Garden, a re-invitation brought her to the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg for a new production of “Samson et Dalila” and in the summer of 2022 she conducted Bizet's "Carmen" in a production by Calixto Bieito at the Norske Opera in Oslo.

She often appears as guest conductor with leading ensembles such as the Orchestre de Paris, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the WDR, hr and MDR Symphony Orchestras, the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and followed among others invitations to the Komische Oper Berlin, the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, the Royal Opera London to Amsterdam, Gothenburg, Oslo, Graz, Nice, Strasbourg and Hamburg. In 2009, she was nominated “Discovery of the Year” by the most important music prize in France, the “Révélation des Victoires de la musique”.

Today, Ariane Matiakh's repertoire covers from numerous operas to a wide spectrum of symphonic works and ballets from the music of the Baroque period to contemporary compositions. In the last season she conducted among others three world premieres: a violin concerto by Bryce Dessner with Pekka Kuusisto and the hr symphony orchestra, the world premiere of „Eclairs“ by Philippe Hersant at the Opéra Comique in Paris as well as the world premiere of the harp concerto by Sally Beamish at the PROMS in London, with the BBC Orchestra of Wales and Anneleen Lenaerts.

Ariane Matiakh’s versatility and the joy she experiences when making musical discoveries is also reflected in her discography. For the Capriccio label, she recorded the works of Johanna Doderer as well as a CD with music by Francis Poulenc and Jean Françaix; in 2018, she received a Grammy nomination for her Capriccio recording of both piano concertos by Zara Levina with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. As part of a further collaboration with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, she recorded works by Harald Genzmer, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari and Richard Strauss. Berlin Classic released a recording with piano concertos by Clara Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by Ragna Schirmer and the Staatskapelle Halle.

At the beginning of the 2022/23 season, Ariane Matiakh will take up her post as principal conductor of the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, which she will accompany not only during the Reutlingen season but also on guest tours to Stuttgart, Vienna and Aschaffenburg, among other places. For her first season, Ariane Matiakh was able to win over soloists such as Lawrence Power, Alexander Melnikov and the horn player Christoph Ess and introduces young talents such as the pianist Roman Borisov.

In the upcoming season 2022/23 Ariane Matiakh follows among others re-invitations of the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Orchestre de Paris, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Bordeaux, to conduct Duruflé's Requiem and subsequently open the season in Bordeaux. Other season highlights will include repeated collaborations with the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg for a new production of "La voix humaine" (director - Katie Mitchell) and debuts with the Orchestre Métropolitaine in Montréal and the Nationaltheater-Orchester Mannheim, among others.

In recognition of her achievements in French musical life and representing French culture abroad, Ariane Matiakh was awarded the “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French ministry of culture in 2014 and the “Officier de l’Ordre des Arts des Lettres” in 2022.

2022 / 2023