One of the few female conductors active on the continental European scene, Ariane Matiakh has been active in both France and Germany. She has expertise extending to opera as well as symphonic music. Matiakh led the Orchestra of the French National Opera of Montpellier in a variety of orchestral concerts, and she received a classic big break in 2007 when she was asked to conduct the Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 with the Orchestre National de Montpellier, replacing an ailing James Conlon. Matiakh made her recording debut in 2015, leading the Deutschland Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in an album of works by Johanna Doderer. From 2018 to 2020, she was General Music Director of the Staatskapelle Halle. In the early 2020s, Matiakh made debuts with major groups, including the Sinfonieorchester Basel, with which she released a recording of the Seven Stars Symphony of Charles Koechlin in 2022.