Born in 1962 Philippe de Chalendar started his musical studies with piano and cello. 
In 1985 he graduated from the Freiburg Music School and was taken as first celloist in
the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra in the summers of 1987-1988, where he
played under Leonard Bernstein and Sergiu Celibidache. Upon the encouragement of
Bernstein to pursue conducting studies, he joined the conducting class of the Paris
National Music Conservatoire and participated in numerous master-classes (Sienna,
Hilversum, Bartók Festival, Tanglewood).