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Claire Chevallier
16 december 2017
Photo: Alex Vanhee
CLAIRE CHEVALLIER
French pianist Claire Chevallier is much in demand across Europe for solo recitals, chamber music and concertos. Highly acclaimed for her concerts and award winning recordings, Claire specializes in period performance particularly from the classical to the French masters of the 20th Century. Claire also brings the unique sound world of her pianos to theatre productions.
As musician-researcher, she began her own collection of French-Russian historical keyboards, which has grown in the meantime to 6 instruments covering the time span 1842-1920.
Claire combined the study of the piano at the musical academies of Nancy, Strasbourg (Hélène Boschi) and Paris (Bruno Rigutto) with her traditional studies in mathematics and physics.
She then continued her musical education at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden and Guy Van Waas, where she was awarded first prize in piano and chamber music. She became fascinated with the fortepiano during her studies via a master class given by Jos van Immerseel. She began to concentrate on the historical background and the evolution in the “construction” of the fortepiano, and for a number of years studied the specific characteristics and maintenance requirements (tuning, strings, etc) of the instrument completely on her own. She thus developed extensive expertise in historical keyboards as fortepiano specialist and as pianist.
In 1996, Claire Chevallier was invited by the renowned dance company Rosas to work with the Anima Eterna Brugge orchestra in presenting the music for a dance and music performance around concert arias by Mozart. This production played in all the major European venues including London’s Royal Festival Hall, La Monnaie in Brussels and the Dresden Staatsschauspiel.
Since then she has appeared regularly as soloist or chambriste in Cité de la Musique in Paris, Salle Pleyel, Opéra de Dijon, Opéra de Bordeaux, Académies musicales de Saintes, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vredenburg Utrecht, Netwerk Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Brühl Schloss Konzerte, Musikfestspiele Bremen, Salzburg Mozarteum, Kölner Fest für alte Musik, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Concentus Moraviae… In Belgium, she was invited by among others BOZAR and Kaaitheater in Brussels, Concertgebouw Bruges, MA Festival Bruges, the Festival of Flanders Ghent, AMUZ and deSingel in Antwerp…
In 2008-2009, Concertgebouw Brugge makes her ‘Friend in Music’, and from the end of 2009, she is in residence for three years by AMUZ Antwerp.
Since 2004, she has been teaching fortepiano at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. She is also considered as a excellent tuner on historical keyboards.
For the 2007 and 2010 edition, she was member of the jury of the International Fortepiano Competition, organised by the MA Festival in Bruges. In 2014 she was member of the jury of the Liszt Competition Utrecht. In 2018, she is member of the jury of the First International Chopin Competition on historical instruments in Warsaw.
Her solo recordings are dedicated to Satie ( Zig-Zag Outhere 2008), Liszt
( Dolce Volta, HM 2011) and Moussorgsky ( Cyprès-records, Outhere 2016). In duo two piano’s with Jos van Immerseel, she recorded ‘ Pièces à deux pianos’
( Saint-Saëns, Poulenc, Franck, Infante), ‘Suites’ by Rachmaninoff, four-hands works by Schubert in the box ‘Schubertiade’ ( Alpha-Outhere), four-hands works by Brahms/Grieg/Dvorak ( Alpha-Outhere). As a soloist she recorded also the ‘Concerto pour ma main gauche’ by Ravel, and the ‘Concerto pour deux pianos’ by Poulenc, with Anima Eterna orchestra.
Her experience in and taste for interdisciplinary projects (dance, theatre, film) has led to various collaborations with fellow artists like Wayn Traub, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker/ Rosas, David Claerbout, Benoît Van Innis, Josse de Pauw, Jan Decorte, Jan Lauwers/ Needcompany.
In music- theater discipline, for ‘Façade: the final days of Mata-Hari’, she collaborated with Claron McFadden, soprano en Josse de Pauw, actor (production Muziektheater Transparant 2017).
Since 2013, Claire has made some research on Russian pianomusic and instruments. She plays Moussorgsky’s solo works on a Becker piano ( 1875, St Petersburg), and Tchaïkowsky chamber music with Sergei Istomin (cello).
Her last DEBUSSY solo recording was made through the journey of her collaboration with dancer Lisbeth Gruwez/ Voetvolk. ‘Piano works Debussy’ has toured in many countries since 2020 and still continues.
Her collaboration with Soprano Claron McFadden gave a new production in 2024 called ‘Chez Bricktop’ with music of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Ravel, Debussy, Satie… and played for the Klara Festival in BOZAR in Belgium.
2024