Alain Surrans
was born in 1959 in Lille and studied there art history and music. He worked then with Maurice Fleuret at the Festival de Lille before joining at his side the Ministry of Culture in 1982. Seven years later he was appointed at the head of Ile de France Opera et Ballet, a network promoting and presenting dance and opera events and performances in the region surrounding Paris. From 1994 to 1998 he worked with the conductor Emmanuel Krivine as an artistic manager for the Auditorium and National Orchestra in Lyon. After a new collaboration with the Ministry of Culture as a music advisor, from 1998 to 2002, Alain Surrans was appointed in 2005 general manager of the Opera de Rennes. From 2011 to 2016 he was chairman of the French Union of Opera Managers (CPDO), which was furthermore transformed into a professional organization of opera companies and orchestras named Les Forces Musicales. In 2018 he was appointed as a general manager of Angers Nantes Opera.

Alain Surrans has written various books on music : Jeux de massacre (Bernard Coutaz, 1988), Le Regard du musicien (Plume, 1993), Mauricio Kagel, parcours avec l’orchestre (L’Arche, 1993), Musiciens en voyage (Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, 2001). He has conceived and presented several exhibitions on music and musicians (Mahler, Bartok, Ravel, Varèse, Falla, Webern, Zemlinsky) in France, Belgium and Switzerland.