Emmanuel Villaume is Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra as well as Chief Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava. He served as the Spoleto Festival USA's Music Director for Opera & Orchestra from 2001 to 2010.

Maestro Villaume opened the 2009-2010 season conducting concerts (with Anna Netrebko) in Duisburg, Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm, followed by performances with the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana. He appeared with the Utah Symphony, and returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago for The Merry Widow in December. In early 2010 he conducted both the Slovak Philharmonic and Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestras in a series of performances, returned to Charleston, SC for the Spoleto Festival USA, and conducted the Quebec Symphony. Later in the year, he conducted Werther with San Francisco Opera, led Samson et Dalila with Opera Marseille, and the concert in Bucharest with Sarah Chang, violin.

Year 2011 commenced with his leading the annual New Year's Concert of the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana. Later in January he appeared with the Oregon Symphony in Portland, OR (with Emanuel Ax), in performances with the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana and Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava, as well as performances of Massenet's Werther at Teatro Real. In August, he will appear in Buenos Aires conducting Pelléas et Mélisande at Teatro Colon. The fall of 2011 includes conducting Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann for Opening Night of Lyric Opera.

In 2007-2008, Maestro Villaume's performances included Carmen at the Metropolitan, La Bohéme for Washington National Opera's 2007-08 season opening Opera (with Sabina Cvilak), Thaïs at La Fenice... He has led the Montreal Symphony in Montreal and at Carnegie Hall, the North Carolina Symphony, the NHK Orchestra in Tokyo and the Juilliard Symphony, as well as the special concert in Oberammergau, Germany with Renee Fleming, Rolando Villazon and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester. In 2008-2009, Maestro Villaume conducted Manon to open the Lyric Opera of Chicago season, Carmen at Los Angeles Opera, Tosca in Berlin and Les Contes d'Hoffmann in Turin. Orchestra performances included the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic, and the Juilliard Orchestra. During the 2005-06 season he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Samson et Dalila, to the Covent Garden for La Rondine with Angela Gheorghiu, to the Los Angeles Opera for La Bohème starring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, as well as L'Elisir d'Amore at Washington National Opera and Meyerbeer's Il Crociato in Egitto at La Fenice in Venice. He conducted Les Contes d'Hoffmann at Teatro Real in Madrid, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and Vienna in concert performances with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon, the Orchestre National de Belgique in Paris, and three concerts during the Olympic Games of 2008.

Born in Strasbourg in 1964, Emmanuel Villaume began his musical education at the Strasbourg Conservatory and continued his studies in Paris, where he received degrees in literature, philosophy and musicology. He also studied dramatic arts and performed in theatrical productions. He was appointed Dramaturg of the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg at the age of 21. During his tenure there he came to the attention of Spiros Argiris, Music Director of the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, who invited him to conduct and narrate Debussy's Chansons de Bilitis in 1987, followed by an invitation to make his American debut at the 1990 Spoleto Festival USA with Le Nozze di Figaro. During that time he led numerous symphonic concerts and opera performances for the Festival, including the American première of Henze's Der Prinz von Homburg, and acclaimed productions of Ariadne auf Naxos, Manon Lescaut, Der Fliegende Holländer, Lakme, and Don Giovanni.
Maestro Villaume has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, the Washington National Opera, the Royal Opera House, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bastille Opera, as well as opera houses in Bonn, Cologne, Los Angeles, Dallas, Hamburg, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Toulouse, Montreal, St. Louis, Monte Carlo, Nice, Marseille, and the Klangbogen Festival in Vienna (with Plácido Domingo). He has led the Montreal Symphony, the orchestras in Boston, San Francisco, Symphony, Houston, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Detroit; Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Orchestre symphonique national du Danemark, Orchestre de la Radio norvégienne, Beethovenhalle Orchestra of Bonn, Kungliga Filharmonikerna; the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane symphonies; the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the orchestras of the Bastille Opera and Teatro alla Scala.

Emmanuel Villaume holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Indianapolis.
He makes his home in Paris and New York.