AIX-EN-PROVENCE.- With the approval of Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, of Sophie Joissains, Mayor of the City of Aix-en-Provence, of Martine Vassal, President of the Métropole Aix- Marseille-Provence and of the Conseil départemental des Bouches-du-Rhône and of Renaud Muselier, President of the Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and upon the recommendation of its Chairman Paul Hermelin, the Board of the Festival d’Aix- en-Provence has unanimously appointed today Ted Huffman as General Director of the Festival for a five-year term, effective January 1, 2026.
Succeeding Pierre Audi, who passed away suddenly in May 2025, Ted Huffman will implement the program conceived by Pierre Audi for the 2026 edition and, in part, for the 2027 edition. At the same time, he will begin developing the artistic vision and strategic framework for the 2028 editions and beyond.
“There has long been a genuine “love story” between Ted Huffman and the Festival d’Aix-en- Provence, which he first discovered in 2012 while taking part in the sessions of our Académie. He has returned every year since, directing several productions that have been both remarkable and widely acclaimed, most recently in 2025 with The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor.
The project he presented to us combines a deep respect for the Festival’s core values with a boldness that we believe initiated a new momentum for the future of both the Festival and opera itself. With his international experience and his keen understanding of the cultural and artistic dynamics of our region, I am confident that he has all the qualities needed to further enhance the reach and influence of our cherished Festival. I would also like to pay tribute to the memory of Pierre Audi, whose philosophy of openness and artistic ambition has further shaped the identity of Aix, and to extend my heartfelt thanks to Bernard Foccroulle, who has guided our teams with generosity and placed his expertise at the service of the Festival throughout this past year.” -- Paul Hermelin – Chairman of the Board of the Festival
Born in New York in 1977, stage director and writer Ted Huffman studied Humanities at Yale University and then apprenticed at San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program. He was a MacDowell Fellow in 2017. His productions have earned numerous awards and nominations, including ones for the Olivier Awards, the International Opera Awards, the Opernwelt Awards, the Fedora Generali Prize, the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, the UK Theatre Awards, the South Bank Sky Arts Awards and the Ivor Novello Awards.
Ted Huffman has been a regular at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence since 2012, when he was first invited as part of the Académie; The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor, a new adaptation of Britten’s opera with composer Oliver Leith, marked his fifth production with the Festival, in 2025.
His recent work as librettist and/or director include Philip Venables’ We Are the Lucky Ones (Amsterdam, Ruhrtriennale), Eugene Onegin (Covent Garden), L’incoronazione di Poppea (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Versailles, Cologne, Rennes and Toulon, Nederlandse Reisopera), Venables’ The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Holland Festival, the Ruhrtriennale, Manchester, the Southbank Centre and Bregenz), Kurt Weill’s Street Scene (Opéra national de Paris), Venables’ Denis & Katya (Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Southbank Centre, Montpellier, Hanover and Music Theatre Wales), Venables’ 4.48 Psychosis (Covent Garden, Prototype Festival, Strasbourg), Kris Defoort’s The Time of Our Singing (Brussels, St. Gallen), Ana Sokolovic’s Svádba (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Luxembourg, Angers-Nantes, Ljubliana Festival), Les Mamelles de Tirésias (Aldeburgh Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam, Brussels, Valencia), Roméo et Juliette (Zurich), Die Vögel (Strasbourg), Madame Butterfly (Zurich, Montpellier), Stefan Wirth’s The Girl with a Pearl Earring (Zurich), Rinaldo (Frankfurt), Salome (Cologne), Arthur Lavandier’s Le Premier Meurtre (Lille), Trouble in Tahiti (Amsterdam, Valencia), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Deutsche Oper Berlin, Montpellier), and Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno (Copenhagen, Montpellier).
This season, he directs new productions at the Staatsoper Berlin (The Cunning Little Vixen), the Opéra-Comique (Werther), the Opéra national du Rhin (Otello), the Glyndebourne Festival (Tosca). He will also revive We Are The Lucky Ones at the Tyrol Festival in Erl and The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions at the Park Avenue Armory in New York.
