Jean-Christophe Vervoitte

Born in 1970, Jean-Christophe Vervoitte studied the horn with Marc Barbier at the Conservatoire of Douai, before entering the Conservatoire of Paris in 1988 in the classes of Georges Barboteu and André Cazalet. He was awarded a first prize for horn in 1991, as well as two first prizes for chamber music. At the same time, he studied harmony with Jean-Claude Raynaud, conducting with Jean-Sébastien Béreau, natural horn with Claude Maury and organ. In 1993, he joined the soloists of the Ensemble intercontemporain, which enabled him to work with major figures in contemporary creation such as Stockhausen, Carter, Berio, Donatoni and Ligeti.

He has also premiered numerous works for his instrument, in collaboration with composers of the new generation such as Michaël Jarrell, Bruno Mantovani, Matthias Pintscher, Marc Monnet, Marco Stroppa, Alain Louvier and Johannes Maria Staud, and as a chamber musician with Barbara Hannigan, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Barbara Hendricks, Patrick Gallois, André Cazalet, Christian Tetzlaff and Pier-Luigi Frabretti.

His experience in prestigious symphony orchestras (Orchestre de Chambre d’Europe, Opéra de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse) has enabled him to play under the direction of Riccardo Muti, Seïji Osawa, Esa Pekka Salonen, Heinz Holliger and Kurt Masur. With the Ensemble Intercontemporain, he has appeared as soloist at the Boulez Sall in Berlin, the Lucerne Culture and Congress Atticus Theatre in Athens, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, La Scala in Milan, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Carnegie Hall in New York.

Since 2017, Jean-Christophe Vervoitte has been collaborating with other musicians from Les Arts Florissants, the Orchestre de Paris and the Ensemble Intercontemporain on chamber music as part of the Philharmonie de Paris programme. These three-formation concerts considerably enriched the range of themes offered to the public, who gave them an enthusiastic welcome.

In 2019, accompanied by pianist Sebastien Vichard, he notably performed Beethoven’s Horn Sonata, Robert Schumann’s Adagio and Allegro and Michael Jarrell’s Assonance IVb on period instruments from the Philharmonie de Paris, a programme that reflects his desire to renew his concert themes.

Jean-Christophe Vervoitte has given masterclasses at the Académie internationale du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Carnegie Hall in New York, the American universities of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and California (Berkeley), the University of Seoul, the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai), and taught at the Pierre Boulez Academy at the Lucerne Festival from 1999 to 2017. He has been professor of chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) since 2023.