Born in 1968, Jean-Philippe Wurtz studied at the National Conservatoire of the Region of Strasbourg and at the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule. He was admitted to the International Eötvös Institute where he studied with Peter Eötvös and 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, and later to Friedemann Layer at the Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon Orchestra, which he regularly conducts. He also served as Director of the musical studies at the Opera of Montpellier.

Among others he conducted 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) and Opéra National de Paris-Bastille.

He premiered numerous works by contemporary composers, such as Klaus Huber, Wolfgang Rihm, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Jacques Lenot and Bernd Asmus.