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Originaire de la ville rose, c’est après des études en sciences politiques que Matthieu Toulouse se consacre au chant lyrique et se forme à la Schola Cantorum de Paris, où il obtient son diplôme de concert à l’unanimité avec les félicitations du jury. Il suit depuis les enseignements de Didier Laclau-Barrère.
Il fait ses premiers pas sur scène avec les rôles du Sprecher et du 2ème homme d’arme dans la Flûte Enchantée au Festival de Saint-Céré, à l’Opéra de Clermont-Ferrand et à l’Opéra de Massy. Depuis, il s’est produit à l’Opéra de Reims, au théâtre du Châtelet, à l’opéra de Versailles, au théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, à l’opéra de Ho Chi Minh, à l’Opéra de Massy, de Clermont-Ferrand ainsi qu’au festival de Saint Céré, à l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo… dans les rôles de Leporello/Don Giovanni, Ariodate/Sersé de Haendel, le Gouverneur/Le Comte Ory, Pandolfe/Cendrillon de Massenet, Alidoro/La Cenerentola, le 1er artisan/Wozzeck (mise en scène Michel Fau), Ame/Hulda de César Franck avec le Palazetto Bru Zane (Philharmonies de Liège et Namur, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), assure la doublure de Rocco/Fidelio (Opéra de Nice) ; Le Pilote/Tristan und Isolde.
Remarqué pour son tempérament, la profondeur de ses graves et sa diction, il est aussi régulièrement sollicité pour les messes de Requiem de Mozart, de Fauré, ou encore de Duruflé. Il a également interprété la basse solo dans le Messie de Haendel, la Messa di Gloria de Puccini, la Création de Haydn.
Parmi ses projets : il reprend le 1er artisan/Wozzeck au Festival d’Aix-en-Provence et Alcandro/L’Olimpiade en tournée (dont au Festival International d’Opéra Baroque de Beaune) avec L’Ensemble Matheus de Jean-Christophe Spinosi ; se produit à Bordeaux avec l’ensemble baroque Orfeo, etc.
Bruce Liu was brought to the world’s attention in 2021, when he won the First Prize at the 18th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw.
Following his competition’s success, he immediately embarks on a world tour, appearing at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Wiener Konzerthaus, BOZAR Brussels, Tokyo Opera City, Sala São Paulo, Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra, U.S tour with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Past highlights include performance with ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as North-America tour with the China NCPA Orchestra.
His upcoming highlights include debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, European tour with Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker at Musikverein, festival appearances at la Roque d’Anthéron, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Rheingau, Edinburgh, Chopin and his Europe, Duszniki, and Gstaad Menuhin.
An exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon, his first album featuring the winning performances from the Chopin Competition won a Fryderyk Award and received international acclaim including both the Critics’ choice and Editor’s choice from the Gramophone Magazine, as well as being included in its list of Best classical albums from 2021.
“What we all have in common is our difference”, the young pianist likes to say. Born in Paris to Chinese parents, Bruce Liu grew up in Montreal. His life has been steeped in cultural diversity, which has shaped his differences in attitude, personality and character. He draws on various sources of inspiration for his art: European refinement, Chinese long tradition, North American dynamism and openness. Following his artist path with optimism and a smile, his teachers include Richard Raymond and Dang Thai Son.
Nicolas Henchoz is the founding director of the EPFL+ECAL Lab. He is the Art Papers Chair of SIGGRAPH 2023, the world leading conference in Computer graphics and interaction techniques. Engineer, researcher, art director, manager, he has developed a unique vision of innovation, blending cultural creativity, scientific practices and human observation to foster sustainable adoption.
His projects have led to many academic contributions and awards. He has also curated more than 30 exhibitions in institutions including the American Institute of Architecture (NYC), the Royal College of Art (London), the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris and Harvard University. He’s the co-founder of GAMI Global Alliance for Media Innovation and has been honoured as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by French minister for culture and communication.
Violinist Irène Duval is one of the most distinctive voices of her generation — praised for her ‘poised, fearless energy, chamber intelligence and musical finesse’ (Charlotte Gardner, dCS Only the Music) and ‘mastery of phrasing and of the dramatic dimension’ (Diapason). She is one of Bachtrack’s Ten Rising Stars to Watch for 2025–26.
At the heart of her artistic identity is a passion for combining works central to the repertoire with little-known gems. Her second disc, Fauré and Friends, was released by Capriccio in 2024 and pairs two rarely performed second violin sonatas — Fauré’s and Enescu’s.
Recent highlights include her participation in Stephen Kovacevich’s 85th birthday concert at Wigmore Hall alongside Martha Argerich, her debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the first symphonic concert given by an international orchestra in Mauritius, her debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at the inauguration concert of the Casals Forum in Kronberg, her first appearance at the Verbier Festival playing with Janine Jansen, a Debussy concert with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet at Wigmore Hall, and her fourth collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In November 2024, she played in a 5-concert celebration of the centenary of Gabriel Fauré at Wigmore Hall, performing sonatas and ensemble works with Joshua Bell, Jeremy Denk, Blythe Engstroem, Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih.
As a soloist, she has collaborated with major orchestras including the Dresdner Philharmonie, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestre d’Auvergne, Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Sinfonia Varsovia, and Kremerata Baltica, working with such conductors as Maxim Emelyanychev, Michael Sanderling, and Karel Mark Chichon.
Irène gives recitals at major venues and festivals in Europe, Japan and Australia, including the Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Salle Gaveau, Dresdner Kulturpalast, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Philharmonie de Paris, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and Les Folles Journées in Nantes, Nigata and Tokyo. She frequently appears with pianists Sam Armstrong, Alasdair Beatson, Ariel Lanyi, Mishka Rushdie Momen, and Angus Webster.
Chamber music holds an important space in Irène’s heart and she enjoys participating in Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove in Cornwall each year, at the Krzyzowa Chamber Music Festival in Poland, and in Kronberg’s Chamber music connects the world festival.
Born in France to a French father and Korean mother, Irène Duval grew up in Japan, Indonesia, and Hong Kong before returning to France at the age of 11. She studied with Suzanne Gessner and Jean-Jacques Kantorow, before entering the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2008 in the class of Roland Daugareil; in 2014 she joined the Kronberg Academy in Germany, where she studied with Mihaela Martin for three years.
She has been supported by ArteMusica Stiftung, Fondation pour la vocation Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, Fondation d’Entreprise Banque Populaire, Günther Caspar Stiftung, Fondation de l’Or du Rhin, Fondation Safran pour la musique, and in 2021, she was a prize-winner at the Young Classical Artists Trust International Auditions.
Irène plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini which is kindly loaned to her by a private sponsor.
American tenor Neil Shicoff, internationally recognised as one of the pre-eminent tenors of his generation, has performed at the world’s most renowned opera houses, has collaborated with the greatest conductors and directors, and is a GRAMMY® Awards, recording artist with an extensive discography of both solo and full-length opera recordings. His numerous honours include the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Ehrenmitglied and Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera, and the Golden Mask, Russia’s highest singing and acting honour, for his performance of Eleazar in La Juive. Between 2015-2017 he was also Chief of the Opera of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, St Petersburg. In recent years, he has become known as a celebrated teacher and judge and is highly sought after both privately and as a guest teacher / adjudicator by young artist programmes and competitions around the world. American tenor Neil Shicoff, internationally recognized as one of the pre-eminent tenors of his generation, has performed at the world’s most renowned opera houses, has collaborated with the greatest conductors and directors, and is a GRAMMY® Awards, recording artist with an extensive discography of both solo and full-length opera recordings. His numerous honours include the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Ehrenmitglied and Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera, and the Golden Mask, Russia’s highest singing and acting honour, for his performance of Eleazar in La Juive. Between 2015-2017 he was also Chief of the Opera of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, St Petersburg. In recent years, he has become known as a celebrated teacher and judge and is highly sought after both privately and as a guest teacher / adjudicator by young artist programmes and competitions around the world.
Sandra Albukrek, a graduate of the Arts-Décoratifs in Paris, is an artist-director and scenographer who draws, paints, sculpts writes and works in performing arts. Following her collaboration with Pina Bausch, she also creates in a smaller format: the book. Her work is a kind of visual philosophical conversation, where color is language, forming a curiosity cabinet of magical objects and dreamlike bestiaries. Creator without limit, the artist decided to link her visual research to classical music. This led to truly original and innovative productions: films of animated paintings presented during live performances. Albukrerk is producer and artistic director of her highly personal creations. Her work has accompanied musicians such as Martha Argerich, Nelson Goerner, Kai Schumacher, Ivry Gitlis and Gábor Takács-Nagy. For the Gala, the artist imagined a unique work of over two hundred original paintings and a scenario full of magic and humour.
Dan Nimmer was born in 1982 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a young man, Nimmer’s family inherited a piano on which he started playing by ear.
Nimmer studied classical piano and eventually became interested in jazz. At the same time, he began playing gigs around Milwaukee.
Upon graduation from high school, Nimmer left Milwaukee to study music at Northern Illinois University. It didn’t take him long to become one of Chicago’s busiest piano players. Working a lot in the Chicago scene, Nimmer decided to leave school and make the big move to New York City where he immediately emerged on the New York scene. In 2005, a year after moving to New York, he became a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as well as the Wynton Marsalis Quintet and Septet, all of which he is currently a member.
Nimmer has performed and recorded with Jimmy Cobb, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson, Renée Fleming, Houston Person, Fareed Haque, Ruben Blades, Lewis Nash, and many more.
He has released six of his own trio albums on the Venus label (Japan).
Jason Marsalis was born in New Orleans, LA on March 4, 1977. He was the sixth son of Ellis and Dolores Marsalis and the fourth son, after Branford, Wynton, and Delfeayo, to pursue music. After receiving a toy drum set at age 3, Jason first studied violin at age 5 and then received a real drum set at age 6. After sitting in at age 7 with his father, pianist Ellis Marsalis, career moments started to happen at an early age. He studied with New Orleans legend James Black, traveled to Boston a month before his 9th birthday to perform on his older brother Delfeayo’s recital at the Berklee College of Music. At age 13, he appeared on the PBS TV show “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” with his father and brothers Branford and Delfeayo and then a year later, performed on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in Delfeayo’s band.
During his senior year in high school in 1994, Marsalis ascended to the drum throne of a new group lead by virtuoso pianist and former sideman for Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts. It was on the day after graduation that Marsalis flew to New York to split time working with his father’s trio at the Iridium while recording his first album with Roberts, “Portraits in Blue”. The album was a fresh take on George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with the drums in between a jazz band and symphony orchestra. This concept would be developed with Roberts over the years to come. Despite a demanding touring schedule with Roberts, Marsalis furthered his educational goals by attending Loyola University in New Orleans, as well as studying composition with notable classical composer, Roger Dickerson. While Marsalis made appearances with such international jazz luminaries as Joe Henderson and Lionel Hampton, he was visible on the New Orleans scene working with a diverse cross section of bands from Casa Samba (Brazilian), Neslort (jazz fusion) Summer Stages (children’s theater), Dr. Michael White (traditional jazz) and many others. It was in 1998 that he cofounded the Latin-jazz group Los Hombres Calientes. While recording two albums with the group, Marsalis also produced two albums under his own name, Year of the Drummer (1998) and Music in Motion (2000), as well as producing reissues and current recordings of his father on their self-owned label, ELM Records.
In 2000, Jason left the Los Hombres group to attain more focus with the Marcus Roberts Trio. It was around that time the Marsalis started to play the vibraphone on gigs in New Orleans. This evolved in yet another chapter in Marsalis’ career as he recorded on the vibes with clarinetist Tim Laughlin and drummer Shannon Powell while starting to lead his own band on vibes. In 2005, Marsalis’ made a recording of George Gershwin’s “Concerto in F” with the Marcus Roberts Trio and the Saito Kinen Orchestra. It was a project that involved fusing jazz and classical music and it was an important moment for the Trio. While this exciting event was taking place in Tokyo, Japan, it was marred by the events happening in his hometown, Hurricane Katrina. Even though his career took a slight hit after that event and living in Brooklyn for a year, Jason returned to New Orleans in 2007 to put the pieces back together.
After returning to New Orleans in 2007, his reach with the types of bands widened considerably. Early that year he recorded with John Ellis and Double-wide on a well received album entitled “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow”. He also recorded and produced an album of Thelonious Monk’s music with his father entitled “An Open Letter to Thelonious”. In January of 2008, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) called for him to start teaching the students. He also started working on the traditional jazz scene with musicians such as Lars Edegran and Tommy Sancton at Preservation Hall and Palm Court Jazz Cafe. It was in April of 2008 that Marsalis was asked to play the vibraphone with the legendary Lionel Hampton Orchestra at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans. In fall of that year, he was on a double-bill tour with Doublewide and a jazz-fusion group from Denton, Texas, Snarky Puppy. After that tour, Marsalis would make guest appearances with the group and has developed a following amongst the groups fans.
In 2009, the Marsalis Family would receive the NEA Jazz Masters award. In June of that year, the family would appear at the White House and the Kennedy Center to do a tribute show to their father. The concert was made into an album entitled, “Music Redeems”. Later that year, Marsalis would release his first new album in 9 years and his debut album on vibes, “Music Update”. In 2010, the bassist from the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Christian Fabien, called him to participate in a recording session with drummer Ed Littlefield and pianist Reuel Lubag. The made two records, Christian’s “West Coast Session” and Ed’s “Walking Between Worlds”. The latter would include folk songs from the leader’s native Alaskan Tlingit tribe from his hometown of Sitka, Alaska. That project inspired the group to be named the Native Jazz Quartet, a group that would arrange folk songs into jazz tunes. Their first recording of that concept was “NJQ Stories”, recorded in 2012. Also in 2012, Marsalis was involved in another genre-breaking collaboration as the Marcus Roberts Trio released an album with banjoist Bela Fleck. The combination of jazz and bluegrass was entitled “Across the Imaginary Divide” and the unit toured successfully that year. Marsalis also managed to do a performance on various percussion at the 2012 Essence Music Festival in New Orleans with Aretha Franklin. Ironically, Franklin would contact Marsalis to do some performances on vibes but sadly, she passed away before anything came to fruition.
2013 was a monumental year in which Marsalis released his next recording as a leader on vibes entitled “In a World of Mallets”. The album went to number 1 on the CMJ Radio Charts and also won an Offbeat Magazine award, a New Orleans music magazine, for best Contemporary Jazz Album. There was even recordings from the drum kit as Marcus Roberts released three recordings that year. Two with Wynton Marsalis, “Together Again – In the Studio” and “Together Again – Live in Concert”, and the ambitious original trio suite from Roberts, “From Rags to Rhythm”. Marsalis’ latest recordings included the follow-up album as a leader, “The 21st Century Trad Band”, and an album he produced for his father entitled “On the Second Occasion”, both released in 2014. 2016 brings the newest release entitled “Heirs of the Crescent City”, a soundtrack to the film “Heirs”, a documentary about the traditions and cultures of New Orleans passed on through generations.
In recent years, Jason has worked more with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He’s recorded three albums, “The Ever Fonky Lowdown”, “A Swingin’ Sesame Street Celebration”, the latter also being a TV special, and “Swing Symphony” with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Robertson. Marsalis is currently teaching adjunct at the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
A renowned jazz saxophonist and clarinetist, Goines has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and the Wynton Marsalis Septet he was named President & CEO of Jazz St. Louis in September 2023.
Clarinetist, saxophonist, and educator Victor L. Goines is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993, touring throughout the world and recording over twenty-one releases, including Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning recording Blood on the Fields (Columbia Records, 1997) and The Ever Fonky Lowdown (2020), Marsalis and Eric Clapton (2011), Jazz at Lincoln Center’s A Swingin’ Sesame Street Celebration (2020), The Fifties: A Prism (2020), Black, Brown and Beige (2020), The Music of Wayne Shorter (2020), Jazz for Kids (2019), Swing Symphony (2019), Una Noche con Ruben Blades (2018), United We Swing (2018), Handful of Keys (2017), The Music of John Lewis (2017), The Abyssinian Mass (2016), Big Band Holidays (2016), Live in Cuba (2015) all from Blue Engine Records and, as well as the soundtracks for Ken Burns’ acclaimed documentaries, JAZZ, 1999; Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, 2004 and The War, 2007. Goines has collaborated on three video projects with Cuban clarinetist Janio Abreu. Two videos, Nuestra Herencia Musical (Our Musical Heritage) (2018), Juntos Otra Vez (Together Again) (2019), are with Abreu’s ensemble Aires de Concerto; and the third, Vic and I (2020), is with La Orquesta de Cåmara de la Habana conducted by Daiana Garcia. He is an acclaimed solo artist and leads his own quartet. As a leader, Mr. Goines has ten recordings including A Dance at The Mardi Gras Ball (2016), Morning Swing (2013), and Twilight (2012), all from Rosemary Joseph Records.
A gifted composer, Goines has more than 200 original works to his credit. His commissions include The Four Winds Suite (2021) and Suite for Bird (2014) for the Music Institute of Chicago; Untamed Elegance (2016) and Crescent City (2014) featuring Branford Marsalis for Jazz at Lincoln Center; Benny: Then, Now, Forever! (2009) for The ASCAP Foundation and Columbia College Chicago with support from the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, and Base Line (2002) for the Juilliard School to support the original choreography by Juilliard alumnus Robert Battle and other countless works for hire.
Mr. Goines has recorded, performed, and collaborated with many noted jazz and popular artists such as Terence Blanchard, Ruth Brown, Paquito D’Rivera, Dianne Reeves, Jack McDuff, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, B.B. King, Branford Marsalis, Delfeayo, Ellis Marsalis, Jason Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Dianne Reeves, Marcus Roberts, Wayne Shorter, Chucho Valdez, and Stevie Wonder. Additionally, Goines can be heard on the film scores for the motion pictures Undercover Blues, When Night Falls on Manhattan and Rosewood as well as on music videos featuring Chick Corea, Garth Fagin, Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, and Linda Ronstadt, and a host of other renowned musicians and ensembles.
Throughout his career, Goines has been deeply committed to the field of jazz education. In November 2007 he was named director of jazz studies and professor of music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Prior to that appointment, Goines was for seven years inaugural artistic director of the jazz program at the Juilliard School and a faculty member in jazz clarinet and saxophone. During his tenure at Juilliard, the department expanded from a collaborative program with Jazz at Lincoln Center to include formal Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. He has also served on the faculties of Florida A&M University, the University of New Orleans, Loyola University in New Orleans, and Xavier University.
A native of New Orleans, he began studying clarinet at age eight. He received his Bachelor of Music Education from Loyola University in New Orleans in 1984, and his Master of Music from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond in 1990.