Jérôme Comte

After studying in Geneva and Paris with teachers of the eminence of Thomas Friedli, Pascal Moragues and Michel Arrignon, Jérôme Comte won prizes at several international competitions in Paris, Prague and Munich and was awarded scholarships by the Meyer Foundation for Cultural and Artistic Development and the Fondation d’entreprise Banque Populaire. In 2003, he became the first young musician to be sponsored by the Académie Charles Cros. The same Academy will award him the Grand Prix du Disque 2017 for his recording of Johannes Brahms’ sonatas opus 120 and Alban Berg’s 4 pieces opus 5 with the renowned pianist Denis Pascal.

Henceforth Jérôme Comte embarked on a career as a chamber musician that has taken him all over the world. Among the internationally acclaimed orchestras with which he has performed are the London Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Ensemble intercontemporain, which he joined in 2005 at age of twenty-five.

The following year he performed Yan Maresz’s Eclipse for clarinet and ensemble under the direction of Pierre Boulez at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. In 2009, he again appeared with Boulez in Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Concerto during a tour of major European concert halls. He recorded the work for Alpha Classics in 2016 with the Ensemble intercontemporain under the direction of Matthias Pintscher.

In 2010 he was invited to perform Boulez’s Dialogue de l’ombre double on the occasion of a retrospective of the composer at the Louvre.

Among significant milestones in Jérôme Comte’s career have been his performances of Unsuk Chin’s Clarinet Concerto under the direction of Matthias Pintscher at the New World Center in Miami and Hans Werner Henze’s Le Miracle de la rose at the Cité de la musique – Philharmonie de Paris. He premiered Nocturne 3 for clarinet and orchestra by the Korean Jaehyuck Choi at the finals of the famous Geneva International Composition Competition in Switzerland, contributing to the success of the composer who won the First Prize. In 2018, Philippe Hurel entrusted him with the world premiere of his concerto Quelques traces dans l’air for clarinet and orchestra, which was performed at the Stadtstheater in Cottbus, Germany.

In 2023, he premiered four new works for solo clarinet by Philippe Hurel, Yan Robin, Adrien Trybucki and David Hudry, as part of the Écho project at the Salle Cortot, in collaboration with pianist Denis Pascal.

Jérôme Comte teaches at the CNSM in Paris, and is also invited all over the world to meet young clarinettists at masterclasses; the most recent were in Taipei (Taiwan), Tokyo (Japan), Mexico City (Mexico), San Jose (Costa Rica) and Porto (Portugal).