International French violin virtuoso François Pineau-Benois will be playing the technically demanding Caprices by Paganini, whose amazing violin skills were believed to be a gift from the devil, in exchange of his soul.
To have a sneak preview of François’ playing the Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto no.5 with the Armenian Chamber Orchetsra: https://youtu.be/2FQubN7tVTo
ABOUT THE CONCERT
A violinist of the new generation, François Pineau-Benois has been nicknamed the “French virtuoso” by the international press. He holds masters degrees in violin and chamber music from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP). He studied with Régis Pasquier at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot. He has also worked with Maxim Vengerov, Salvatore Accardo and Mauricio Fuks at competitive European academies such as Kronberg. He is the recipient of career grants from the Fondation Banque Populaire and Safran pour la Musique (2017), “Culture Moves Europe” (EU), Adami (2023), and prizes from international competitions such as Pro Musici, Alexander Glazounov, Young Artist Award from the Leopold Mozart Competition. He plays with renowned musicians François-René Duchable and Régis Pasquier. And young musicians in France and abroad. The non-exhaustive geography of his concerts includes Belgium, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Israel, United Kingdom, Austria, Czech Republic, Turkey. He has appeared as soloist with symphony orchestras abroad and in France on several occasions. His performance of Vieuxtemps’s 5th concerto with the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia in April 2023 drew rapturous applause from the standing-room-only audience in the presence of their Excellencies the Ambassadors of Belgium and France; Paganini’s 24 Caprices in July 2023 in Finland was praised by professionals, testifying to the fact that for over thirty years in Finland no such performance has been heard. He was invited by France Musique, Radio Netherlands and Radio Bartok for live broadcasts. He performs at the Salle Cortot, the Grand Salon des Invalides, the Liszt Chamber hall in Budapest. And at prestigious festivals such as Auvers-sur-Oise, Festival de Ravel à Montfort, Festival Radio France à Montpellier and the Gstadt New Year Festival. His first CD with Philia Trio (2022) was nominated by France Musique and Classica. A multi-faceted musician, he works with contemporary composers Graciane Finzi, Régis Campo, Antonio Santana and Seppo Torvikoski, and recorded Matti Murto’s Concertino for Violin and Strings, supported by the Télépart mobility grant from the Finnish Institute in Paris. With the support of the ACM SIGMM society, François Pineau-Benois leads the “Music meets Science” program and revives the works of composers from the Rachmaninoff Conservatory in the “Les Voix de l’Exil” concert series supported by the Belaieff-Schott Foundation.François Pineau-Benois plays Lucien Durosoir’s historic 18th-century Italian violin “Le Genève”, the instrument this early 20th-century virtuoso took with him to the front in the First World War.
