Description

Julien Chauvin studied the violin with Vera Beths at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and Baroque and Classical period-instrument performance with Wilbert Hazelzet, Jaap ter Linden and Anner Bylsma. In 2003, he was a prizewinner at the International Early Music competition in Bruges. He then went on to perform as a soloist in South America, South Africa and Georgia, while at the same time playing in the leading European Baroque ensembles, before founding Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, which he directed jointly with Jérémie Rhorer for ten years. Realising his desire to bring back to life a celebrated formation of the eighteenth century, in 2015 Julien Chauvin formed a new period-instrument orchestra, Le Concert de la Loge. The ambitious aims of this modern recreation have been demonstrated by its exploration of forgotten works from the French repertory, but also of innovative forms of direction (the ensemble is directed from the violin) and of concert formats encouraging spontaneous and imaginative reactions from the audience. He also continues to perform with the Quatuor Cambini-Paris, which was formed in 2007. Julien Chauvin has conducted such operatic and music theatre productions as Era la notte (staged by Juliette Deschamps with Anna Caterina Antonacci); Félicien David’s Le Saphir, Piccinni’s Atys, Lemoyne’s Phèdre and Isouard’s Cendrillon in productions staged by Marc Paquien for the Palazzetto Bru Zane; Haydn’s Armida directed by Mariame Clément; and Sacchini’s Le Cid staged by Sandrine Anglade.

Continuing to investigate the question of direction in the eighteenth-century opera, he recently directed Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail from the violin in a production by Christophe Rulhes. Among the orchestras and ensembles he has directed from the violin are the Esterházy Hofkapelle, the Orchestre Régional d’Avignon Provence, the Orkiestra Historyczna of Katowice, the Orchestre Français des Jeunes, the Folger Consort in Washington, Les Violons du Roy and the Kammerorchester Basel.

Julien Chauvin has recorded concertante works by Haydn, Beethoven and Berlioz with Le Cercle de l’Harmonie on the Eloquentia and Ambroisie-Naïve labels. In 2016 he began recording Haydn’s ‘Paris’ Symphonies with Le Concert de la Loge for Aparté. He regularly appears in recital with Jean-François Heisser, Alain Planès, Christophe Coin and Olivier Baumont. He and Baumont recorded the disc ‘À Madame’ at Versailles Palace for the Aparté label. For the year 2017/18, Julien Chauvin was artist in residence at the Institut d’études avancées de Paris in a partnership aimed at stimulating dialogue between music and research in the realm of the humanities and social sciences. In addition to his concert activities, Julien Chauvin also devotes himself to teaching in orchestral sessions or masterclasses at the Conservatoires Nationaux de Musique et de Danse of both Paris and Lyon, the École Normale de Paris and the Orchestre Français des Jeunes.

Julien Chauvin plays a Baroque violin by Jacob Stainer from 1670 (formerly the “Mozart-Wranitzki”), leant by an arts patron, and a Romantic violin by Giuseppe Rocca from 1839, in the framework of the ‘Adopt-a-Musician’ project.

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