Praised for his precision and elegance at the podium, Jean-Pierre Schmitt was trained in the purest French conducting tradition, under the tutelage of his mentor and friend, the late maestro Jean Fournet. He has worked with the Conservatory Paris V youth orchestras and the International Orchestra in Paris.

Soon after his arrival in the U.S. in 1988 maestro Schmitt was invited to conduct the Classic Chamber Orchestra of Connecticut, and the New York Lawyers’ Orchestra. He is greatly admired by the orchestra members he has conducted and possesses a rare ability to convey his musical insights to the performers.  He founded The French-American Chamber Orchestra in New York, with whom he performed in such venues as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Florence Gould Hall and the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium at the United Nations, where the ensemble was invited by the French delegation.

He has recorded with this orchestra both Haydn concerti for cello, featuring soloist Arianne Lallemand.  He has worked extensively with classical saxophonist Javier Oviedo to make the repertoire of this instrument known to a larger public. They performed with the Louisiana Chamber Orchestra and in 2008 released a recording: The Classical Saxophone: A French Love Story with the Orchestre Pasdeloup in Paris.  Mr. Schmitt has been invited as guest conductor on several occasions to lead both the Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Macedonia.

“Schmitt maintains the right balance between soloist and ensemble, and one can sense that Oviedo and the Orchestre Pasdeloup are working together to transcend the concerto genre.”

-AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

“[Oviedo is] ably accompanied by the Orchestre Pasdeloup, conducted by Jean-Pierre Schmidt, who ably capture this sound of salons and velvet settees.”

-THE BIG CITY