Jean-Guihen Queyras

The work of cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras is characterized by his curiosity, diversity and firm focus on the music itself, whether on the concert platform or on record. He learned his interpretative approach from Pierre Boulez, with whom he established a long artistic partnership.

He is as thorough in his approach to early music, including continuing collaborations with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, as he is to contemporary music. He has given the world premieres of works by composers such as Ivan Fedele, Gilbert Amy, Bruno Mantovani, Michael Jarrell, Johannes Maria Staud, Thomas Larcher, Tristan Murail and Peter Eötvös.

The versatility of his music-making has led to invitations to be artist in residence at many concert halls and festivals, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, the De Bijloke Music Centre in Ghent and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg.
Jean-Guihen Queyras was a founding member of the Arcanto Quartet and forms a celebrated trio with Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov. He also works frequently with Alexandre Tharaud.
Jean-Guihen Queyras is a regular guest with such renowned orchestras as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. He has worked with conductors such as Iván Fischer, Philippe Herreweghe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, François-Xavier Roth, John Eliot Gardiner and Roger Norrington.

Jean-Guihen Queyras’s discography comprises many acclaimed recordings, including performances of cello concertos by Elgar, Dvořák, Philippe Schœller and Gilbert Amy. His CDs of works by C.P.E. Bach and Vivaldi was released in 2018. Jean-Guihen Queyras records exclusively for harmonia mundi.

Highlights of the 2020/21 season include performances with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, as well as concerts with the Belcea Quartet, Tabea Zimmermann, Alexander Melnikov and Isabelle Faust. He was also artist in residence at Radio France.

Jean-Guihen Queyras holds a professorship at the University of Music in Freiburg and is artistic director of the Rencontres Musicales de Haute-Provence Festival. He plays a 1696 instrument by Gioffredo Cappa, made available by the Mécénat Musical Société Générale.