Classique
Valentine Michaud
Valentine Michaud is a French saxophonist born in 1993 and living in Switzerland since 2010. Winner of numerous prizes, including the Credit Suisse Jeunes Solistes (2017) and the Jurjans Andrejs VI Woodwind International Competition in Riga (Latvia), in 2020 she won the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award, presented for the first time to a wind instrument.
The first solo saxophonist to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic, the 2022-23 season will see Valentine's debut with the orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Lucerne Festival, where she will perform the world premiere of the saxophone and orchestra version of Anders Hillborg's Peacock Tales. This season also sees Valentine's debuts at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Folle Journée de Nantes and with the Wellington Orchestra performing John Psathas' Zahara saxophone concerto.
Concert highlights include debuts with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko performing Glazunov's Saxophone Concerto, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande with conductor Maxime Pascal performing John Adams' Saxophone Concerto, and Valentine's debut in the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra recital series.
The first solo saxophonist to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic, the 2022-23 season will see Valentine's debut with the orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Lucerne Festival, where she will perform the world premiere of the saxophone and orchestra version of Anders Hillborg's Peacock Tales. This season also sees Valentine's debuts at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Folle Journée de Nantes and with the Wellington Orchestra performing John Psathas' Zahara saxophone concerto.
Concert highlights include debuts with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko performing Glazunov's Saxophone Concerto, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande with conductor Maxime Pascal performing John Adams' Saxophone Concerto, and Valentine's debut in the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra recital series.
Valentine has performed as soloist and chamber musician on many prestigious stages, including the KKL Luzern, London's Wigmore Hall, St Petersburg's Grand Philharmonic Hall, the Wiener Konzerthaus, Zurich's Tonhalle, Geneva's Victoria Hall and Riga's Great Guild Hall, among others.
Convinced of the richness of collaborations with other art forms and seeking to develop new concert formats, Valentine co-founded the SIBJA collective, in which she is artistic director with her brother Emmanuel Michaud, performs as an instrumentalist and designs the costumes. The collective created the trilogy of shows WAITING FOR AMON, the first part of which, GLITCH, a performance for a painter, two dancers, two saxophonists and live electronics, premiered in June 2016 at the Theater der Künste in Zurich. The second part, CAIRNS, for a performer and saxophone quartet, was created in 2017. The final part of the trilogy, SHOUT, for solo saxophone and performer, was premiered in March 2018. The tryptic was awarded a grant from the Nico Kaufmann Foundation (Zürich) in 2018. In 2020, Sibja will direct the film BOTH-Le Dialogue de l'ombre double.
Convinced of the richness of collaborations with other art forms and seeking to develop new concert formats, Valentine co-founded the SIBJA collective, in which she is artistic director with her brother Emmanuel Michaud, performs as an instrumentalist and designs the costumes. The collective created the trilogy of shows WAITING FOR AMON, the first part of which, GLITCH, a performance for a painter, two dancers, two saxophonists and live electronics, premiered in June 2016 at the Theater der Künste in Zurich. The second part, CAIRNS, for a performer and saxophone quartet, was created in 2017. The final part of the trilogy, SHOUT, for solo saxophone and performer, was premiered in March 2018. The tryptic was awarded a grant from the Nico Kaufmann Foundation (Zürich) in 2018. In 2020, Sibja will direct the film BOTH-Le Dialogue de l'ombre double.
Her duo Akmi, with pianist partner Akvile Sileikaite, received the Swiss Ambassador Award 2019, as well as 1st Prize in the renowned Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition in 2016 and 2nd Prize in the Salieri Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition in 2018. Together, the two musicians have performed at the Lucerne Festival, Festival Radio France Montpellier, London's Wigmore Hall and the St Petersburg Cappella, among others. They regularly commission works by young composers and are about to record their first duo CD.
Wishing to contribute to the renewal of the repertoire for her instrument, she collaborates with composers whose works she regularly premieres, including Anders Hillborg, Kevin Juillerat, Raphaël Sévère, Alvin Lucier, Léo Collin, Jean-Baptiste Robin, Jesper Nordin and Ernest H. Papier.
Wishing to contribute to the renewal of the repertoire for her instrument, she collaborates with composers whose works she regularly premieres, including Anders Hillborg, Kevin Juillerat, Raphaël Sévère, Alvin Lucier, Léo Collin, Jean-Baptiste Robin, Jesper Nordin and Ernest H. Papier.
After studying in Nantes in the tradition of the French saxophone school (Joël Hérissé's class), Valentine moved to Switzerland at the age of 16 to study with Pierre-Stéphane Meugé at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne, where she became interested in the contemporary repertoire and early music (Baroque, Renaissance). In 2013, she graduated with a degree in saxophone, while also completing a degree in musicology at the Sorbonne University in Paris. After a first master's degree in instrumental pedagogy, she continued her training with a second master's degree from 2015, this time with a soloist focus, in the class of Professor Lars Mlekusch at the Zurich University of the Arts, where she then became an assistant until 2019. Since 2017, she has been teaching at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique, Danse et Théâtre in Geneva.
Photo credit: © Gabrielle Besenval
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