After receiving first prize in virtuosity at the Geneva Conservatory, François Guye perfected his skills with André Navarra for three years in Detmold (Germany). He has won numerous awards, including first prize at the Vienna Competition and first prize at the Geneva Competition. He met Pierre Fournier in 1978 and attended his master classes before studying alongside him. A true friendship was born with this great master ; today he plays his cello, a Miremont from 1879.

François Guye shows a great love for chamber music. He has often played with the Sine Nomine Quartet and the Melos Quartet, and for many years he collaborated with violinist Raphaël Oleg and pianist Gérard Wyss in the WOG trio. Additionally, he is a founding member of the Schumann Quartet, a group that is emerging as one of the best of the moment.

In addition to these numerous chamber ensembles, he has played with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, under the direction of conductors such as Armin Jordan, Horst Stein, Lovro von Matacic and Rudolf Barchai. Both the press and the public have praised his performances of Bach’s cello suites and Henri Dutilleux’s concerto for cello and orchestra Tout un monde lointain.

François Guye gives many summer courses and masterclasses. He has been solo cello of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and cello teacher at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève.

Photo © Carole Parodi

Sonia Wieder-Atherton was born in San Francisco of a mother of Romanian origin and an American father. She grew up in New York and then Paris, where she soon enrolled at the Conservatoire National Supérieur, studying with Maurice Gendron. At 19 she crossed the Iron Curtain to live in Moscow, where she studied with Natalia Shakhovskaya at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Her years there brought her a top-class education and left her a special, abiding relationship with time and history. Back in France, at 25, she won the Rostropovich Competition.

Sonia Wieder-Atherton works has developed an especially close relationship with a wide range of contemporary composers (Betsy Jolas, Pascal Dusapin, Georges Aperghis, Francesco Filidei, Georges Aperghis, Wolfgang Rihm, Bernard Foccroule, and Edith Canat de Chizy. She performs as a soloist under the guidance of numerous conductors, notably with: the Paris Orchestra, the French National Orchestra, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Liège Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonia, the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Luxembourg, the NDR Orchestra in Hanover, the REMIX Ensemble, Les Siècles, Asko/ Schönberg… and regularly performs chamber music with artists like Imogen Cooper, Elisabeth Leonskaïa, Raphaël Oleg, Alexander Paley, Bruno Fontaine and many others.

Sonia Wieder-Atherton’s musical worlds use many materials and voices. She has been the instigator of many projects that she designs and stages: From the East in Music, a show designed with footage from Chantal Akerman’s film D’Est. Night Dances, with Charlotte Rampling, confronting works by Benjamin Britten and Sylvia Plath. Shakespeare Bach, with Charlotte Rampling, based on sonnets by Shakespeare, Bach and Monteverdi. Marguerite Duras’ Navire Night with Fanny Ardant. Exile, a creation for cello, piano and eight voices. She has also worked with dancer Shantala Shivalingappa, translator André Markowicz, and the late French pop singer Jacques Higelin.

In 2020, Sonia Wieder-Atherton signed an editorial partnership with the Alpha Classics label. In 2011, she received the Bernheim Foundation Award. In 2015, she was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Sonia Wieder-Atherton performed at the 2018 ceremonial reburial of Simone Veil in the Pantheon, Paris.

Photo © Jacques Grison

An insatiable curiosity, a taste for risk, an immoderate appetite for the whole of the concerted cello repertoire, complete disregard of limits and petty quarrels : those are no doubt the features that have always set this brilliant Franco-Swiss musician apart. Her passion? Working from the sources, inquiring into the text, using her virtuosity to bring out the musical discourse and make the music loved by all.

Named “Revelation: Solo Instrumentalist of the Year” at the French Classical Music Awards(Victoires) in 2003, she has since appeared in recital at many prestigious venues: Concertgebouw Bruges and Amsterdam; Bozarand Flagey, Brussels; the theatres of Bordeaux, Avignon, Poissy, Aix-en-Provence; the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; Oji Hall, Tokyo; London’s Wigmore Hall; and so on.

She also performs works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and has recorded, for instance, Britten’s complete Cello Suites and Piano Sonatas with Vanessa Wagner (Diapason d’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique) and Pierre Bartholomée’s Oraison for solo cello.

Her solo album Dreams (Aparté) recorded in 2009 at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, proved to be a great public success.

Versatile artist, Ophelie Gaillard also regularly performs as a soloist with orchestras such as the Japan Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, the Polish Radio Orchestra and the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, the Franz Liszt ChamberOrchestra of Budapest, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, etc….

Ophélie Gaillard has won several prizes in major international competitions, including, most notably, The third prize of the J. S. Bach International Cello Competition in Leipzig in 1998. In 2010 she was invited to sit on the jury for the ARD International Cello Competition in Munich.

She appears regularly on radio (France Musique, France Culture, France Inter, Radio Classique, BBC Radio 3, Espace 2) and television (France 2, Mezzo, Arte).

2015 her double ALVORADA CD was awardedStar Recording by the Strad Magazine. This programme, a journey into popular Spanish and Latin American musics was on tour in France, Italy(MiTo Festival), Mexico (Cervantino Festival), withBrazilian singer Toquinho among others and 2016 her second CPEBACH recording was hailed by the critic and received a Diapason d’or, Choc de la Musique Classica, FFFF Telerama.

Among other recordings highly acclaimed as well, Exils with Bloch’s Schelomo coupled with the Korngold’s cello concerto with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra under British conductorJames Judd, Strauss’ Don Quixote with the CzechNational Symphony Orchestra, Boccherini with Pulcinella Orchestra.

Fond of encounters, she regularly shares the stage with Lambert Wilson, hip-hop dancer Ibrahim Sissoko, choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, dancers Hugo Marchand and Ludmila Pagliero (Etoiles of the Opéra National de Paris), or Brazilian star singer of bossa nova Toquinho (live album Canto de sereia recorded for Aparté at the MiTo festival in 2017).

After a double album dedicated to Boccherini in 2019 recorded with the complicity of Sandrine Piau, Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella won in 2020 a wide audience success thanks to a double album Vivaldi, I colori dell’ombra recorded during the health crisis with mezzo-sopranos Lucile Richardot and Delphine Galou.

Beginning of 2021, Ophélie Gaillard offers us a journey through 100 years of opera arias with her new recording « Cellopera» accompanied by the “Vienna Morphing Orchestra”, under the baton of Frédéric Chaslin, thanks to transcriptions for cello and orchestra of works by Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovski, Offenbach and Puccini.

March 2022, back to the 1730s, Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella together with guest artists Sandrine Piau and Lucile Richardot, meet Italian composers who tried their luck in London, such as Geminiani, Porpora, Bononcini and spend a poetic « Night in London ».

2014 she was appointed Professor at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva and her recording of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s cello concerti with Pulcinella was awarded DIAPASON D’OR of the year.

Ophélie Gaillard plays a cello by Francesco Goffriller (1737), generously on loan from the CIC, and also an anonymous Flemish violoncello piccolo.

Nicolas Chalvin began his career at the Lausanne Opera, where he was inspired by Armin Jordan, who encouraged him to trade in the oboe for the baton. There, he led a wide range of repertoires – Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, Messager’s Véronique, Offenbach’s Parisian Life, Pascal Dusapin’s Niobé, Philippe Boesmans’ Reigen and Verdi’s The Troubadour, as well as Carmen, Madame Butterfly and The Trojans, among others. « With opera, it’s the conductor who breathes life into the drama, and the conductor who draws together the various elements of the orchestra pit to create perfect harmony », he enthuses. Before long, Chalvin was making frequent forays into the world of symphonies, performing as a guest with the Orchestre National de Lyon and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, as well as at orchestras in Innsbruck and Geneva. In 2009, he was appointed musical director of the Orchestre National des Pays de Savoie, which he soon brought to international prominence.

A great admirer of the Viennese masters (Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms), Chalvin strives to recreate the tone and style of their phrasing and places a particular emphasis on orchestral balance. His preferred repertoire, however, extends much further. He enjoys the subtlety and transparency of French music, as well as its colour and bold harmonies. Yet his devotion to the great works of the classical repertoire has not prevented him from leading his musicians into less charted territory – this has resulted in the Orchestre National des Pays de Savoie recording rarer pieces by Reynaldo Hahn and Paul Le Flem. Contemporary music is also an area of particular interest for Chalvin.

A firm believer in the rich value and limitless potential of the chamber orchestra as an ensemble, Nicolas Chalvin leads the Orchestre National des Pays de Savoie in a range of repertoires, from Baroque to contemporary, in programmes that have been warmly received by the public and critics alike. Not just an artist, a conductor is also a manager. As Chalvin himself explains: « The conductor’s role is a difficult yet fascinating one, requiring great interpersonal skills and a keen sense of awareness. More than anything, I like to draw the orchestra with me, each step of the way, so that, together, we can bring concerts to life with moments of magic. » In addition to a full season with the Orchestre National des Pays de Savoie, Chalvin will also direct Peer Gynt at the Opéra de Limoges in May 2017.

Photo © Manuel Braun

Christian Favre, born on 23rd January 1955 in Lausanne, is a Swiss soloist and chamber music pianist, composer and professor.

He studied at his hometown « Conservatoire » with Francesco Zaza. In 1975 he won the First Virtuoso Prize for piano with congratulations by the Jury headed by Louis Hiltbrand. He progressed further with Karl Engel at the Hanover “Musikhochschule”, where he obtained a soloist diploma in 1978.

He also benefited from the teachings by Stefan Askenase in Bonn, by Guido Agosti in Sienna and by Nikita Magaloff in Montreux.

Christian Favre performs in recitals, in chamber music and with orchestra. He has played under such conductors as Armin Jordan, Jesús López Cobos, Franz Welser-Möst, Marius Constant, Marcello Viotti, Tibor Varga, Christian Zacharias, etc. As he is particularly keen to establish close interactions between music, poetry and literature, Christian Favre partnered with actors such as Richard Vachoux, Corine Coderey, Nicolas Rinuy, Anna Pieri, for various poetical recitals based on : Franz Liszt/Victor Hugo, Robert Schumann/E. T. A. Hoffmann, Maurice Ravel/Aloysius Bertrand, Frédéric Chopin/George Sand. Since the beginning of his career he has given concerts in a very large number of European cities. Fascinated by chamber music, he has in particular performed with violinists Jean Jaquerod, Pierre Amoyal, Tedi Papavrami, Gilles Colliard, Gyula Stuller, Raphaël Oleg, Denitsa Kazakova and Frédéric Angleraux, violist Christoph Schiller, cellists Martina Schucan, François Guye, Wen-Sinn Yang, Thomas Demenga and Mark Drobinsky, pianists Martha Argerich, Alexandre Rabinovitch, Brigitte Meyer, Jean-François Antonioli, Paul Coker and Marc Pantillon, the Munich String Trio, the Raymond Quartet, the Amati Quartet, the Sine Nomine Quartet, as well as the Schumann Quartet, of which he is the standing pianist. Christian Favre has produced a considerable discography and has taken part in numerous radio and television programs.

He has composed a Requiem for choir, soloists and orchestra that was first performed in March 2008 in Buenos Aires with the Buenos Aires Filarmónica Orchestra conducted by Facundo Agudin. He is also the composer of several chamber music works , which he played in concert with musicians such as Tedi Papavrami, Gilles Colliard, François Guye, Denitsa Kazakova, Stefan Rusiecki, as well as with the Schumann Quartet. Some of these works have been recorded on a CD produced by Doron Music. His voice and piano-quartet transcriptions of the “Prélude et Mort d’Isolde”, of the “Wesendonck-Lieder” by Richard Wagner and of the “Rückert-Lieder” by Gustav Mahler have been rendered on several occasions in Switzerland, France and Spain by opera singer Dame Felicity Lott and the Schumann Quartet. In 2007 the Aeon company produced a CD of such transcriptions with the same artists.

In parallel with such activities, Christian Favre teaches at the High School of Music in Lausanne (HEMU) and regularly leads master classes in Switzerland and abroad. He is the artistic director and founder of the « Concours d’Interprétation Musicale de Lausanne » and has led the « Printemps de Romainmôtier » interpretation classes. He also leads interpretation classes at the Bienne International Summer Academy.

Amongst the many pupils whom he taught, mention can be made of Cédric Pescia, Jean-Selim Abdelmoula, Christian Chamorel, Mark Farago, Mauro lo Conte, Vittorio Forte, Sylvain Viredaz, Guy-François Leuenberger, Léonie Renaud, Lucas Buclin, Lionel Monnet, Magali Bourquin, Virginie Falquet, Antoine Rebstein, Yukiko Tanaka.