Elsewhere in 2026/27, he appears with the China National Symphony Orchestra and Tan Dun at the Shanghai Festival, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Dima Slobodeniuk at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich under Fabien Gabel at the Vienna Musikverein and in St. Pölten. He also continues to tour his acclaimed Serenata Latina project with Rolando Villazón, with performances including the Rheingau Musik Festival and Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern.
De Maistre is regularly invited by leading orchestras across the globe, including the Chicago, Montréal, City of Birmingham, Swedish Radio and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras; Los Angeles, London, St Petersburg, Oslo and China Philharmonic Orchestras; Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg and Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo. He has worked with conductors including Sir André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Philippe Jordan, Bertrand de Billy, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Daniel Harding, Susanna Mälkki and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.
As a recitalist, he has appeared at many of the world’s major festivals, including the Rheingau Musik Festival, Salzburg Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Verbier Festival, Budapest Spring Festival, Würzburg Mozartfest and Mostly Mozart in New York. Passionate about chamber music, he regularly develops original recital projects with artists from different musical worlds, including Rolando Villazón, flamenco and castanet legend Lucero Tena, Diana Damrau, Arabella Steinbacher, Daniel Müller-Schott, Baiba Skride, Antoine Tamestit and Mojca Erdmann.
An exclusive Sony Music artist since 2008, de Maistre made his debut for the label with Nuit d’Étoiles, dedicated to Debussy. Further releases include Hommage à Haydn (2009), Aranjuez (2010), Notte Veneziana (2012), Moldau (2015), and La Harpe Reine (2016) with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie. Serenata Latina, recorded with Rolando Villazón, was released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2020, followed by Christmas Harp in 2021 and an album devoted to Russian repertoire in 2022, featuring concertos by Glière and Mosolov with the WDR Sinfonieorchester and Nathalie Stutzmann.
His latest album, Händel, released by Sony Classical in 2025 with Festival Strings Lucerne, marks another chapter in his exploration of the harp repertoire. Alongside Handel’s celebrated Harp Concerto, de Maistre turns to works originally conceived for other instruments, including organ concertos newly arranged for harp and orchestra — continuing the work of reinvention that has been central to his artistic identity.
Born in Toulon, Xavier de Maistre studied harp with Vassilia Briano at his local conservatoire before continuing his studies with Catherine Michel and Jacqueline Borot in Paris. Alongside his musical training, he studied at Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics. In 1998, he was awarded First Prize and two interpretation prizes at the prestigious USA International Harp Competition in Bloomington and, in the same year, became the first French musician to join the Wiener Philharmoniker.
He has taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg since 2001.
Xavier de Maistre plays a Lyon & Healy harp.
