Jean-Guihen Queyras’s much awaited recording and accompanying DVD of Bach’s complete solo suites was released last year and received immediate acclaim by the French press (Diapason d’Or and CD of the month in Diapason, CHOC du Monde de la Musique etc.).  Previous CDs include Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ alongside works by Berg and Webern with pianist Alexandre Tharaud (Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’, BBC Music Magazine ‘Chamber Music Choice’, ‘Strad Selection’, Scherzo ‘E’ for Excepcional), Dvořák’s cello concerto with the Prague Philharmonia under the baton of Jiří Bĕlohlávek (BBC Radio 3 CD of the week, November 2005) and Haydn and Monn’s cello concertos performed on a period instrument with the Freiburger Barockorchester, praised in both The Independent on Sunday and the Saturday Telegraph as the definitive baroque version.  His newest CD, Debussy – Poulenc,  presents French music marvels for cello and piano including the sonatas.

Jean-Guihen’s extensive repertoire includes more recent works, which he performs internationally: he gave the world premieres of Ivan Fedele’s cello concerto (Orchestre National de France, Leonard Slatkin) and Gilbert Amy’s concerto (Tokyo Symphony Orchestra at Suntory Hall, Tokyo) and premiered Bruno Mantovani’s concerto with the Saarbrücken Radio Sinfonieorchester and Phillippe Schoeller’s Wind’s Eyes with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg.  The last three appears together on a CD for harmonia mundi.

His particular focus on repertoire for solo cello, which brilliantly demonstrates the exceptional narrative and expressive force of the monodic instrument, led him to devise and perform several series of concerts featuring the Suites by J.S Bach alongside contemporary works at the Triphony Hall in Tokyo and the Théâtre du Châtelet.  He also commissioned six composers (Kurtag, Harvey, Mochizuki, Amy, Nodaïra & Fedele) to write an ‘echo’ to each of the six Bach Suites for solo cello, in a project called ‘Six Suites, Six Echos’, which he has performed in such prestigious venues as the Konzerthaus in Berlin, Hamburg’s Musikhalle and the Cité de la Musique in Paris.

Jean-Guihen made his BBC PROMS debut in July 2008 to unanimous acclaim and gave Britten’s Symphony for cello and orchestra for the final concert at the Aldeburgh Festival. He has been invited as a resident artist of the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and De Bijloke in Gent.  Regular chamber music partners include the pianists Alexander Melnikov and Alexandre Tharaud and the violinist Isabelle Faust.  He is a member of the Arcanto Quartet with Tabea Zimmermann, Antje Weithaas and Daniel Sepec, and performs regularly Zarb specialists Kevan and Bijan Chemirani.

His solo engagements with orchestras include the Philharmonia, Orchestre de Paris, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle Zürich, Radio-Sinfoniorchester Saarbrücken, SWR Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden/Freiburg, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra,  Prague Philharmonia,  Münich Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, DeFhilharmonie Antwerpens,  Sao Paulo State Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, under the baton of Heinz Holliger, Franz Brüggen, Günther Herbig, Daniel Klajner, Jiri Belohlavek, Pascal Rophé, Ed Gardner, David Stern, Leonard Slatkin, Olivier Knussen, Bruno Weil, Paul Daniel, Roger Norrington, André de Ridder, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Muhaï Tang, John Neschling, Yoav Talmi and Andras Ligeti.  Jean-Guihen made his debut in the main hall at Carnegie Hall in New York with Concerto Köln in March 2004.

Jean-Guihen was the solo cellist of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, with whom he recorded the Ligeti Cello Concerto for Deutsche Grammophon, conducted by Pierre Boulez (Gramophone Contemporary Music Award). For Harmonia Mundihe also released Britten’s suites for solo cello and a collection of Hungarian works by Kodaly, Kurtag and Veress, which was awarded a Diapason d’Or.  Jean-Guihen has also recorded Dutilleux’s Tout un Monde Lointain  for Arte Nova/BMGand Boulez’s Messagesquisse for Deutsche Grammophon(Gramophone Contemporary Music Award).

In November 2002, Jean-Guihen Queyras received the City of Toronto Glenn Gould International Protégé Prize in Music, awarded to him by Pierre Boulez and the Glenn Gould Foundation, and was recently made ‘Instrumental Soloist of the Year’ at the French Classical Music Awards.

Jean-Guihen Queyras is Professor at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Germany and one of the Artistic Directors of the ‘Rencontres Musicales de Haute-Provence’ which take place in Forcalquier in July each year.

He plays a cello made by Gioffredo Cappa in 1696, on loan from Mécénat Musical Société Générale since November 2005.

July 2008