Michel Lethiec

French clarinetist Michel Lethiec is currently considered one of the most prominent figures in the international music scene. He is a very active artist on the concert and festival stages, and is also passionate about teaching. He is very active in the research and dissemination of the repertoire, both as a performer and as a program designer.

He performs as a soloist and chamber musician, partnering the most renowned performers and orchestras.

An enthusiastic interpreter of the music of our time, he has premiered numerous pieces and concertos, including works by Penderecki, Corigliano, Denisow, Maratka, Ballif, Landowski, Decoust, Dalbavie, Fourchotte, Risset, Scolari, Narita, Brotons, Hersant, Giraud, Lee, Ryu...

His important discography, for Lyrinx, Naxos, Arion, RCA, Bis, Talent, Actes Sud, includes two great prizes of the disc, and unpublished recordings of which: concertos and chamber music of Krzysztof Penderecki, Porgy & Bess, Preludes, Concerto in F of Gershwin in an arrangement of Frank Villard for clarinet and strings. The tears and prayers of Isaac the blind, by Golijov with string quartet (live recording).

His second recording of Penderecki's Concerto (conducted by the composer) won the International Recording Prize (March 2016), and the quintets of Bernard Hermann (the composer of Hitchcock) and David Del Tredici are now in his recording repertoire with the Fine Arts Quartet, (Naxos).

A compact disc devoted to the clarinet music of Krystof Maratka (chamber music and the concerto Luminarium) is published by Arion, with the author at the piano, violist Karine Lethiec, the Zemlinski Quartet and the Talich Orchestra).

In November 2018, he premiered Krzysztof Penderecki's new Concerto for flute, clarinet and orchestra with Patrick Gallois and the Juventus Orchestra of Warsaw.

A renowned pedagogue, he is Honorary Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Professor at the Conservatoire de Nice, regularly gives master classes in major foreign institutions and participates in juries of international competitions.

Founder of the International Chamber Music Academy of Prades, Artistic Director of the prestigious Pablo Casals Festival for several decades, he has welcomed every summer the greatest chamber musicians and their students, around original programs presented in the Abbey of St. Michel de Cuxa as well as at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and in several other capitals: Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico ...

Michel Lethiec is a Knight in the National Order of Merit and in the Order of Arts and Letters.

He plays Henri SELMER Paris Recital clarinets .

Photo credits: Josep Molina - Emmanuel Layani