Born in 1968, Jean-Philippe Wurtz studied at the National Conservatoire of the Region of Strasbourg where he obtained first prizes in piano, chamber music, analysis. He continued his studies at the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule and received instructions from Ernest BOUR whom he met in Strasbourg. At the same time, he was admitted as a student to the International Eötvös Institute where he studied with Peter Eötvös. There he conducted the Asko and Contrechamps ensembles. In 1997, he founded the LINEA ensemble devoted to contemporary music. In 1994, he was assistant to Kent NAGANO at the Lyon Opera, then to Friedemann Layer at the Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon Orchestra, which he regularly conducts. From 1997-99, he works as Director of the musical studies at the Operas of Montpellier.

 
He conducted following  orchestras/ensembles : l’Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, l’Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, l’Orchestre National des Pays des Loire, l’ensemble oh ton, l’ensemble Alternance, le Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, and worked at the Opéra National de Lyon, Opéras de Montpellier, Vlaamse Opera (Anvers), Opéra National de Paris-Bastille, with stage managers like Robert Carsen, Alfredo Arias, Daniel Mesguich, John Dew and conductors like Armin Jordan, Stuart Bedford… He performed many premieres, among them pieces by Klaus Huber, Rihm, Pagh-Paan, Lenot, Asmus, Yeznikian, Dufour, Heyn, Koch, Lang, Sprintz...