©Photo: Jean-Baptiste-Millot

Victor Julien-Laferrière

Cello

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1^st Prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2017 in Brussels, as part of the first edition dedicated to cello, Victor Julien-Laferrière also won the 1^st Prize and two special prizes at the 2012 Prague Spring International Competition. In 2018, he was awarded the Victoire de la Musique in France as ‘Instrumental Soloist of the Year’.

The coming season sees him appear at Theatre des Champs-Elysées with Alexandre Kantorow, with Orchestre National de France under David Robertson, Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National de Lille, Liege Royal Philharmonique and Quebec Symphony Orchestra, alongside concerts at Brugge Concertgebouw, Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Louisiana Museum Copenhagen and Hohenems Schubertiade with David Fray and Renaud Capuçon.

Victor Julien-Laferrière performs with renowned orchestras worldwide, including Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Belgium National Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Lausanne and Paris chamber orchestras, Les Siècles, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Orchestra i Pomeriggi Musicali, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, and with prestigious conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Kristiina Poska, Emmanuel Krivine, Tugan Sokhiev, Elim Chan, Maxim Emelyanychev, François-Xavier Roth, Jun Märkl, Philippe Herreweghe, Nathalie Stutzmann, Stéphane Denève, Joshua Weilerstein, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Gergely Madaras and Ben Glassberg.

His recital and chamber music projects lead him to prestigious venues and festivals such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Lucerne KKL, Brussels BOZAR, Zurich Tonhalle, Philharmonie de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Essen Philharmonie, Phillips Collection in Washington, Prague Spring International Music Festival, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Rheingau Musik Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Gstaad Sommets Musicaux, Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival, Brussels Cello Festival, Copenhagen Summer Festival, Folles Journées in Nantes and Tokyo.

Victor Julien-Laferrière is also developing substantial activity as a conductor. He guest-conducts the Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France and the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen on tour. He founded his own ensemble ‘Consuelo’ which collaborates intensively with many leading French festivals.

He has an extensive discography and has won multiple awards, including the Diapason d’Or 2017 for his album with French pianist Adam Laloum. In January 2019, Victor Julien-Laferrière released a new album dedicated to Schubert with the Trio Les Esprits (Sony Music). His latest recordings for Alpha Classics include an acclaimed album with pianist Jonas Vitaud dedicated to Shostakovich, Rachmaninov and Denisov (2019), and a Dvořák and Martinů concerti recording with Liege Royal Philharmonique and Gergely Madaras.

Victor Julien-Laferrière studied with René Benedetti, then successively with Roland Pidoux at Paris CNSM Conservatoire, Heinrich Schiff at Vienna University, and Clemens Hagen at Salzburg Mozarteum in Salzburg. At the same time, from 2005 – 2011, he took part in the Seiji Ozawa International Music Academy Switzerland. He plays a cello Domenico Montagnana, owned by Joséphine and Xavier Moreno, and a Dominique Peccatt bow.

Shostakovich Cello Concerto n. 1 op. 107 | Victor Julien-Laferrière Queen Elisabeth Competition 2017 © Queen Elizabeth Competition

Victor Julien-Laferrière - Le Chant des Oiseaux - Arte_Folle Journée 2018 © lasapie

Renaud Capuçon, Alexandre Kantorow et Victor Julien-Laferrière aux Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad 2021 © Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad Festival

Saint-Saëns - Concerto pour violoncelle - Victor-Julien Lafférière © Orchestre de Paris

“Dvořák contains multitudes, and the combination of Julien-Laferrière’s eloquent, focused tone with transparent orchestral playing often extremely beautifully.”

(Richard Bratby, Gramophone, July 2021)

“The winning cellist of the 2017 Queen Elisabeth Competition, whose talent we have often praised, once again seduces by the elegance of his style and his immaculate technique.”

(Jean-Michel Molkhou, Diapason, June 2021)

“The symbiosis of Victor Julien-Laferrière with the orchestra makes expressiveness triumph.”

(Isabelle Werck, Classica, June 2021)

“Victor Julien-Laferrière shows that it is by no means just the middle register that works well on his cello. Its tone is very vocal, its vibrato swings out far, and if it never squeaks or buzzes ugly, its playing is extremely colorful and intense. (…) Victor Julien-Laferrière not only sings on his cello, he also audibly enjoys the virtuoso passages. However, Dvořák did not allow the cellist a cadenza. Bohuslav Martinů, however, opens this stage to the soloist in his first cello concerto.”

(NDR Kultur, Album der Woche, May 2021)

“In these two masterpieces, the winner of the first Queen Elisabeth competition dedicated to the cello (2017) displays the qualities that earned him his first prize: warm, luminous and pure tones, clarity of play, elegance.”

(La Libre Belgique, April 2021)

“Victor Julien-Laferrière, one of the most reliable talents of the young generation of French cellists. […] The duet works wonderfully in this tribute to the Russian soul.”

(Diapason, November 2019)

“This cellist plays with great clarity, avoiding unnecessary affectation, supported by a partner whose tonal conception is as effortless as it is stylistically mature.”

(Concert Classic, November 2019)