FACULTY*

Philippe Entremont (Director) - bio

PIANO Frédéric Aguessy - bio Christian Ivaldi - bio COMPOSITION Allain Gaussin - bio François Paris - bio KEYBOARD HARMONY Isabelle Duha - bio

VIOLIN Alexis Galperine - bio Gérard Poulet Guillaume Sutre - bio VIOLA Tasso Adamopoulous Bruno Pasquier - bio CELLO Henri Demarquette Diana Ligeti - bio

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Philippe Entremont (Director) the world renowned French conductor/pianist is recognized for his remarkable technique and flair, both at the keyboard and on the podium. Mr. Entremont has won great acclaim in both capacities, in appearances with orchestras on five continents.

He is conductor Laureate of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Conductor Laureate of the Israel Chamber Orchestra and Artistic Director of the biennial Santo Domingo Music Festival, which he founded in 1997. He has recently taken on the additional post of Principal Conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra

His recorded legacy – as pianist, conductor is vast. In addition to the standard piano solo and piano-with-orchestra works of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Saint-Saëns and other composers, he has recorded most of the piano music of fellow Frenchmen Debussy and Ravel, plus music by such diverse composers as Gershwin, Satie, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Brahms, Viotti and Tchaikovsky. He is a multiple winner of the Grand Prix du Disque.

Philippe Entremont was born in Reims, France, on June 7, 1934. He has also pursued a busy teaching schedule, including currently serving as director of the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, and formerly at the Ravel Academy at Saint Jean de Luz in southern France.

Philippe Entremont is an officer of the French Legion of Honor and was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, the highest decoration bestowed by the French government in the arts. He also holds, among other decorations, a first class Cross of Honor for the Arts and Sciences from the Austrian government.

PIANO

Frédéric Aguessy studied piano with, among others, Yvonne Lefébure and Dominique Merlet at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris. A laureate of the international piano competitions of Naples, Geneva, Santander and Budapest, he won First Prize in the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in 1979 and then began his international career.

He performs with the major French orchestras and numerous foreign ones, in Germany, Eastern Europe, Portugal and participates in many festivals such as the International Festival of Yokohama (Japan), International Festival of Montpellier and Radio-France. He has recently toured in Japan and South America. He devotes much of his time to Chamber Music and teaching – first at the Conservatoire National de Paris and currently at the Conservatoire National de Région de Rouen.

Christian Ivaldi studied at the Paris Conservatory with Jacques Février and took a Premier Prix in piano performance, as well as in chamber music, counterpoint, and accompaniment. He first appeared as a soloist at Radio France in 1961. He has premiered pieces by Gilbert Amy, Georges Aperghis, André Boucourechliev, Maurice Ohana, and Luis de Pablo among others. He is a reknowned professor at the CSNM in Paris.

VIOLIN

Aexis Galperine - Violinist Aexis Galperine’s performing career, both as soloist and chamber musician, takes him all over Europe, the Middle East, Japan and the U.S. He has been invited to perform by the most prestigious festivals in France and is associated with the ensembles Musicavanti and 2E2M.

After studies at the Conservatoire National in Paris and at the Juilliard School, he was a prizewinner of the Carl Flesh (London) and Paganini (Genoa) competitions, and First Prize winner of the International Belgrade Competition. His main teachers were Ivan Galamian and Henryk Szering. He also has a Masters of Philosophy from the Sorbonne in Paris.

Alexis Galperine now teaches at the Conservatoire in Strasbourg (France) and at the CNSMDP in pedagogy. Students worldwide come to study with him. He recently gave master classes at Indiana University in Bloomington. He also adjudicates many international competitions and has written several acclaimed articles on musicology.

GUILLAUME SUTRE began his studies in Douai, France; he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at age 14. As a student of Gérard Poulet, he was awarded first prize in both violin and chamber music. After finishing his studies in France, he attended Indiana University at Bloomington to study with Josef Gingold, Franco Gulli, Menahem Pressler and Janos Starker. He subsequently studied in Cologne with the Amadeus Quartet.
He was only 18 years old when he won three major awards: first prize in the A. Curci International Violin Competition in Naples, Italy; the International Piano Trio ARD Competition in Munich; and the International Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Indiana. He was subsequently invited to play in numerous festivals, including at Stresa (Italy), la Roque d'Anthéron (France), Wigmore Hall, Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Berlin Philharmonie, Musikverein (Vienna), the Hong Kong Festival, Beijing Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, University of California at Los Angeles and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. His motivation to meet musicians from all continents has led him to travel to more unusual destinations such as the Addis Ababa Conservatory (Ethiopia), Opéra of Manaus (Brazil), Grand Théatre d'Hanoï (Vietnam), and Fondation Bolipata (Philippines).
Deeply influenced by the pianist, composer, chamber musician and teacher Jean-Claude Pennetier, Mr. Sutre was attracted to chamber music early in his career. In 1986, he founded the Trio Wanderer; ten years later he joined the Ysaye Quartet. His vast repertoire of over 400 works features all the string chamber works of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann and Ravel, and all 68 Haydn quartets. His collaborators have included his wife Kyung-Hee Kim, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Nelson Freire, Pascal Rogé, Nicolas Angelich, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Leonidas Kavakos, Michaela Martin, Michel Portal, Paul Meyer, Wolfgang Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma, Roland Pidoux, Antonio Lysy, Movses Pogossian, Renaud & Gauthier Capuçon.
In addition to performing chamber music, Guillaume Sutre has also appeared as soloist with the Orchestra of Montpellier, l'Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Sinfonia Varsovia, Berlin-Radio Orchestra, Göttingen Symphonic Orchestra, l'Orchestre de Bretagne, l'Orchestre d'Auvergne, Franz Liszt Orchestra of Budapest, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and has perfomed with conductors Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Louis Langrée, Volker Schmidt-Gertenbach, Stefan Sanderling, David Robertson and Sheldon Morgenstern, among others.
His recordings for Sony Classical, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, Aeon, and Ysaÿe Records have received the highest distinctions in France and internationally. These recordings include the complete quartets and quintets of Gabriel Fauré with pianist Pascal Rogé, André Boucourechliev's string quartet, Haydn's Last Seven Words of Christ (with Michel Serres's unpublished texts) and Bruch's Double Concerto with the Orchestre de Bretagne. His live recording of the complete duets of Haydn and Mozart with violist Miguel da Silva has been hailed by critics as definitive.
Mr. Sutre is also a passionate advocate of music of his time, and regularly performs world premieres of composers such as Michele Reverdy, Isabelle Fraisse, Noam Sheriff and Paul Chihara. With his wife Kyung-Hee KIM, they keep exploring exploring the untouched repertoire for violin and Harp, renewing with a tradition of more intimate concert given in the Salon de Musique at the time of the creative and merry atmosphere of the Belle époque.
In addition to his performing activities, Mr. Sutre is passionately committed to transmitting his knowledge and sharing his concert experience with musicians of younger generations. Since 1995, he has served as professor of violin, specializing in the practice of the string quartet, at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris. As a visiting professor at the Academies of Villecroze, Nice, Flaine, Aldeburgh, Zeist Music Days, Eastern Music Festival, University of Southern California, and in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he has given master classes in both chamber music as well as solo violin. He currently serves as Professor of Violin and director of string chamber music at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
He recently served on the jury of the prestigious 2010 Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris.
In 1994, SACEM awarded him the prestigious George Enesco Prize. In 1999, he was named Chevalier of the Order of Arts and the Letters by the French government, he received in 2010 the Silver Medal of the City of Paris.
Guillaume Sutre plays a 1738 Italian violin made by Gregorio Antoniazzi, and uses a bow made by François Lupot in 1815.

VIOLA

Bruno Pasquier - Widely recognized as one of today’s great violists, Bruno Pasquier achieves in his playing a perfect synthesis between his musical sensitivity and his impressive technique. Launching his career with first prizes at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris (1961) and the International Munich Competition (1965), M. Pasquier became first soloist with the Théâtre National de l’Opéra de Paris in 1965, and the Orchestre National de France in 1985, where he performed under the batons of Böhm, Solti, and Ozawa, among others. Since 1972, when he was selected by Lorin Maazel to tour Japan as soloist with the Orchestre National, his international career as a soloist has taken him to venues across Europe, the United States, Canada, Russia, and China. M. Pasquier is also a sought-after chamber musician. He performs frequently with his brother, violinist Régis Pasquier, and cellist Roland Pidoux as the Pasquier String Trio, and with the Paris Piano Trio in piano quartets. Other collaborations have included such artists as Nadia Boulanger, Salvatore Accardo, Yehudi Menuhin, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Leonard Rose, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Paul Tortelier, Josef Suk, and Isaac Stern, as well as many of the most prestigious pianists of our era. M. Pasquier teaches viola and chamber music at the Conservatoire National in Paris, and frequently gives master classes in important venues aroud the world. His extensive discography includes many recordings for Harmonia Mundi and Naxos.

CELLO

Diana Ligeti - After her musical studies in Romania, Diana Ligeti passed the ParisConservatoire where she attended a proficiency course in cello in Klaus Heitz’s class, and in Christian Ivaldi’s class of chamber music. Noticed by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, she was admitted to the International Menuhin Music Academy in 1994 and 1995 in Gstaad, Switzerland.

She won a medal in the semifinal at the Rostropovitch Contest in 1990, a First Grand Prix at the International Cello Contest of Douai in 1992, a joint First Prize at the International Contest of chamber music in Osaka, and the Grand Prix at the Musical Forum in Normandy in 1996.

She developed at a very young age a great solist experience, notably in Romania, Italy, France, Germany and took part to many festivals in Japan, Israel, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium…

COMPOSITION

Allain Gaussin - Laureate of several first prizes at the Paris Conservatory, he won his composition prize in the class of Messiaen, and then went on to study computerized music at Ircam. After a period in residence at the French Academy in Rome (1977-1979), then in Berlin (DAAD 1984-1985) and in Kyoto (1994-1995), Allain Gaussin followed an international career as composer, with concerts, lectures and composition seminars: Darmstadt, Seoul, Moscow, Tokyo, New York and all Europe. Currently, he teaches composition at the American Academy in Fontainebleau and at the Academy of French Music in Kyoto, he also teaches Orchestration at the Music University of Osaka (Japan). In 1995 the Charles Cros Academy awarded a "Grand Prix du disque" to the CD of his works: Irisation-Rituel, Camaïeux, Arcane (Salabert/Harmonia-Mundi). In 1998, Mosaïque Celeste won the ICONS International Composition Prize (Italy). website: www.allaingaussin.com

François Paris - The french composer François Paris studied both orchestration and composition. At the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, he studied with Ivo Malec, Betsy Jolas and Gérard Grisey and received the first prize of composition. Before long he was noticed: in 1993, he was awarded a prize by Luciano Berio at the International Competition of Besançon. At the same time, he received a commission from the reading committee of the Ircam and he was scholarship student at the Villa Médicis in Rome (from 1993 to 1995). Back in France, he obtained his musical teaching certificate (CA). In 1999, after winning “the extra-muros Villa Médicis” from the AFAA programme, the French Association for the Artistic Action, he became a resident in the Asturias, Spain. He won the Claude Arrieu prize from the SACEM in 2001.

He was the director of music in Sarcelles for three years. In 2004, he was appointed emeritus professor of composition at the Capital Normal University of Beijing. He also teaches music in France and abroad. He is now the director of the CIRM, the National Center for Musical and of the MANCA Festival in Nice. Numerous National and International institutions have commissioned his works. They are frequently performed and broadcast in France and all over the world. They are published by Ricordi and Billaudot.

KEYBOARD HARMONY

Isabelle Duha studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, where she obtained four First Prizes. She is now a faculty member at the same school, and she teaches a number of techniques of musical expression, including harmony, counterpoint, and fugue. She will conduct exercises on all instruments: harmonization, figured bass, memory, transposition work, and sight-reading.

*The list of faculty is subject to change. Please check back for updates.