Fayçal Karoui studied at the conservatories of Saint-Maurdes-Fossés and his home city of Paris. He won a scholarship to work with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under Michel Plasson, after which he became Plasson’s assistant. In 2002, he was appointed chief conductor of the Orchestre de Pau Pays de Béarn. From 2006 to 2012, he was conductor of the New York City Ballet, and from 2012 to 2014 of the Orchestre Lamoureux in Paris. His extensive experience in ballet is also reflected in Fayçal Karoui’s collaboration with the Hong Kong Ballet on Swan Lake and with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, where he has been a regular guest since 2016. His recent engagements include productions at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Opéra de Paris, Opéra comique, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Cité de la Musique Paris. He has conducted numerous renowned orchestras, including L’Orchestre National de France, L’Orchestre de Paris, L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, L’Orchestre de L’Opéra national de Paris, L’Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi Milano, L’Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia Roma, L’Orchestre de Chambre Lausanne, L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.
Fayçal Karoui’s interest in bringing music to a broad and young audience led him to found a youth orchestra in 2015, in which 130 children between the ages of 8 and 10 are dedicated to making symphonic music together.
In 2013, Fayçal Karoui was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. In 2015, he received the Prix artistique de la Fondation Simone et Cino del Duca.
He made his debut at the Vienna State Ballet in 2014 conducting Sleeping Beauty and has since returned to the Vienna State Opera Orchestra for the ballet productions Balanchine/Liang/Proietto, MacMillan/McGregor/Ashton, Lukács/Lidberg/Duato as well as Kenneth McMillan’s Mayerling and Frederick Ashton’s Marguerite and Armand. In the 2023/24 season he conducts the series of Im siebten Himmel with ballets by Martin Schläpfer, Marco Goecke and George Balanchine.