Miguel Da Silva, Xavier Phillips, François-Frédéric Guy
Biography Miguel Da Silva, Xavier Phillips, François-Frédéric Guy
Miguel da Silva
Franco-Swiss musician Miguel da Silva was born in Reims in 1961. He started studying at the Conservatoire of his native city before moving to Paris where he was a student at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique with Serge Collot. He was awarded first prize in chamber music and also viola (unanimously with special vote by the jury). In 1985 he won First Prize at theInternational Chamber Music Competition in Paris (sonata). His passion for string quartets led him to found the Ysaÿe Quartet with three of his friends. The Ysaÿe Quartet later studied with the Amadeus String Quartet. After winning first prize in the Evian String Quartet Competition, the members of the Ysaÿe Quartet soon launched an international career that brought them across the world, from Japan to America. Their brilliant 30-year partnership was brought to an end in January 2014 after a series of major concerts, with a special emphasis on the music of Beethoven. In the past few years, engagements either as a solo player or with his quartet have led Miguel to the Wigmore Hall in London, as well as most of the greatest concert halls in Europe (Munich/Herkulesaal, Venice/Teatro della Fenice, Copenhague, Helsinki, Amsterdam/Concertgebouw, Hannover, Basel, Baden-Baden, Salzburg/Festspielhaus, Leipzig). Beyond this, he has toured in Belgium, USA, Japan and Italy. Miguel has appeared as a soloist with the Paris Chamber Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre d’Auvergne, the Franz-Liszt Orchestra of Budapest, the Orchestra de Bretagne, and the Orchestre “Les Siecles”.As a very sought after chamber music player, Miguel’s partners have included Michel Portal, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Paul Meyer, Leonidas Kavakos, Pierre Amoyal, Augustin Dumay, Nikita Boriso-Glebksy, Antonio Meneses, Jean-François Heisser, Truls Mork, Henri Demarquette, Gary Hoffmann, Emmanuel Pahud and Christophe Coin. Parallel to his recordings with the Ysaÿe Quartet, Miguel has recorded under the labels Accord, Valois-Auvidis, Philips, Harmonia Mundi. He also founded his own record company. Ysaye Records, and under the label Nascor offers young musicians the opportunity to make their very first recording. In 1994, Miguel initiated a class of string quartets that premiered in France and has since been teaching a whole new generation of French and European quartets and chamber music groups at the Conservatoire National de Région in Paris. In 2008, he was appointed as a professor in Luebeck’s Musikhochschule in Germany, taking over from Walter Levine, and as a tutor at the European Chamber Music Academy and Vienna Music University’s Summer Academy. In 2009, he joined Geneva’s Haute Ecole de Musique as a viola and chamber music teacher, and he became the artistic director of Académie musicale de Villecroze in France. Finally, Miguel has been appointed Master in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium since 2014.
Xavier Phillips
Born in Paris in 1971, Xavier Phillips began to study the cello at the age of six. Aged fifteen he entered Philippe Muller’s studio at the Conservatoire de Paris and graduated with distinction in 1989.
Xavier Philips has been a prize-winner at several competitions. He took 2nd prize and the Young Performer’s Special Award at the International Competition in Belgrade, the Special Award at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, 3rd prize and the Special Award at the Mstislav Rostropovich Competition in Paris and 1st prize at the I International Cello Competition in Helsinki (presented following a unanimous vote). The young musician’s appearance at the Mstislav Rostropovich Competition created a tremendous impression on the maestro himself. Following that meeting, Xavier Phillips began to perfect his skills under the guidance of the famed maestro.
Phillips was soon receiving invitations to perform at the world’s great concert venues with such orchestras as the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Bavarian Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Houston Symphony, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Filarmonica della Scala under such eminent conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, Christoph Eschenbach, James Conlon, Marek Janowski, Serge Baudo, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Ion Marin, Kazushi Ono, Jesús López-Cobos, Günther Herbig, Eliahu Inbal and Vladimir Spivakov.
In September 2001 Phillips made his acclaimed debut with the Orchestre de Paris. Following that, Mstislav Rostropovich invited him to appear in a joint performance of Prokofiev’s Sinfonia concertante with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra that he conducted. Less than a year passed before Xavier Phillips made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. His illustrious mentor was once again at the conductor’s stand. Following this series of successful appearances the cellist was invited to the USA for several concerts with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Vasily Sinaisky. In September 2006 Phillips appeared with the Orchestre de Paris at the opening of the refurbished Salle Pleyel. Critics have lavished praise on his interpretation of Dutilleux’ cello concerto Tout un Monde lointain. The composer, who was himself present at the performance, later said that “Xavier Phillips fully owns this work and evokes the very essence of its title – ‘all a distant world’”.
Engagements for the 2013–2014 and 2014–2015 seasons include a performance of Édouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto with the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi at the Salle Pleyel as well as featuring in a tour by the orchestra to China, a performance of Bloch’s rhapsody for cello and orchestra Schelomo with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Fabien Gabel, Shostakovich’s Second Concerto with the Cité de la Musique in Paris, works by Dutilleux and Schumann with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Orchestre National de Lorraine, a concert at the Konzerthaus in Berlin with the Bavarian Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, appearances at the International Festival in Colmar and the Bogotá Festival together with pianist Igor Tchetuev and violinist Fanny Clamagirand (Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia) and a collaboration with the Florida Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot and Stefan Sanderling.
Together with Albanian violinist Tedi Papavrami and French pianist François-Frédéric Guy, Xavier Phillips plans to perform and record the complete Beethoven chamber works for piano and strings. The musician also plans to record Dutilleux’ cello concerto Tout un Monde lointain with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot. Xavier Phillips dedicates much of his attention to chamber music. He has worked with musicians including Shlomo Mintz, Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian, Régis Pasquier, David Grimal, Emmanuel Strosser, Vahan Mardirossian, Igor Tchetuev, Vanessa Wagnr and Romain Guyot among others.
The musician has an extensive discography and his recordings have won prizes on numerous occasions. Phillips’ discs of works by Kodály (with his brother Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian; Harmonia Mundi / Lontano), works for cello and orchestra (EMI Classics) and Sonatas of Schnittke, Shostakovich and Prokofiev (with pianist Hüseyin Sermet; Harmonia Mundi) received the Choc prize from Le Monde de la Musique magazine.
The cellist has also received the Grand Prix du Disque award for his recording of chamber music by Albéric Magnard (Auvidis Valois). The disc Armenia, dedicated to Armenian music with Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian and Vahan Mardirossian (Warner Classics), received the Choc de l’année prize in 2007.
Xavier Phillips devotes much of his time to teaching. For several years he was an assistant to Roland Pidoux at the Conservatoire National de Paris, running numerous seminars and master-classes.
François-Frédéric Guy
is widely regarded first and foremost as a specialist of the German romantics and above all of Beethoven. In 2008 he embarked on a major Beethoven project that has included recording and performing in concert all of Beethoven’s sonatas and the five piano concertos. He is also a dedicated chamber musician and regularly performs Beethoven’s chamber music for strings and piano with the violinist Tedi Papavrami and the cellist Xavier Phillips. As part of the Beethoven project, he has performed the complete cycle of 32 piano sonatas in Washington, Paris, Monte Carlo and Metz among others, and recently at the Festival Berlioz in La Côte-Saint-André.
In October 2013 the box-set of the live recording of the complete sonatas was released on the French label Zig-Zag Territoires, which had already released François-Frédéric Guy’s highly acclaimed Liszt album containing the Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. Further recordings have been published with Naïve Classique. A duo album with pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet was released by Chandos in June 2015.
In addition to his admiration for Beethoven – whom he describes as “the Alpha and Omega of music” – François-Frédéric Guy has special affinities with the music of Bartók, Brahms, Liszt and Prokofiev and a strong commitment to contemporary music with close links to composers such as Ivan Fedele, Marc Monnet, Gérard Pesson, Bruno Mantovani and Hugues Dufourt who dedicated Erlkönig (2006), his masterpiece for piano solo, to him. He also performed the world premiere of Monnet’s En pièces (2007), and of Mantovani’s Double Concerto (2012) with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In October 2013 he gave the Korean premiere of Le Désenchantement du monde by Tristan Murail with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
François-Frédéric Guy is a regular guest with renowned orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, San Francisco Symphony and Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich. He has collaborated with world famous conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bernard Haitink, Kazushi Ono, Marc Albrecht, Philippe Jordan, Daniel Harding, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Berglund, Lionel Bringuier, Michael Tilson Thomas and Kent Nagano. In recital he has performed at the major concert halls in cities including London, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Paris, Vienna and Washington (D.C.), and at festivals including the Piano Festival in La Roque d'Anthéron, Chopin Festival in Warsaw, Beethovenfest Bonn, Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo and Cheltenham Festival.
Since his successful debuts in the dual role of soloist and conductor with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and Orchestre d'Avignon, François-Frédéric Guy frequently conducts the complete Beethoven concertos from the piano. He recently performed the entire cycle at the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon with the Sinfonia Varsovia, with whom he will tour with the same project in the 2015/16 season. In addition, he will lead the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris this autumn. Furthermore, he will perform with the Moscow City Symphony, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera Roma, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and Staatstheater Kassel Orchestra in the current season. Solo recitals will take him to the Wigmore Hall, Flagey Brussels, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam and Salle Gaveau in Lyon. Following the success of his performances of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in Rio de Janeiro last year, he has been invited to perform Beethoven’s complete violin and cello sonatas as well as piano trios together with Tedi Papavrami and Xavier Philipps in April 2016.
