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Eric-Maria Couturier

Cello

Éric-Maria Couturier is a professor at the Conservatoires Nationaux Supérieurs de Musique et de Danse of Paris and of Lyon. He has received teaching from Roland Pidoux, Christian Ivaldi, Igor Gavrich, Patrick Moutal, Jorge Chaminé, and is a great admirer of Mstislav Rostropovics and Yoyo Ma.

Polymorphous and virtuoso, he regularly performs on the major international stages, as a soloist, or in chamber music with the Talweg trio, with other artists such as Mauricio Pollini, Martha Argerich and Juliana Steinbach, and with the Ensemble intercontemporain, which he joined in 2002. With composer Olivier Derivière, he created the music for the video game Plague Innocent Tale / Requiem, as well as other games’ like Dying Light and Vampyre.

He has improvised in concert with David Linx, Laika and the Unit, Sébastien Lanson, and the electronics of the Plug trio with Michele Rabbia and Nicolas Crosse. With Bertrand Chavarria, he created a piece illustrating the energy of karate. He performs In Japan and in Europe with singer Noh Ryoko Aoki, dance choreographer Butō Akaji Maro and percussionist Tsuchitori Toshi, a collaborator of Peter Brook.

Éric-Maria Couturier has worked with the greatest conductors, including Pierre Boulez, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Georg Solti, Carlo-Maria Giulini, Peter Eötvös, Susanna Mälkki, Jonathan Nott and Esa-Pekka Salonen, among others. He appears as soloist in the cello concertos of Haydn, Dvořák, Brahms double, Shostakovich, Eötvös, Fujikura, Kurtág, Merlin, Pfitzner, Saariaho and Robin, whose Quarks concerto is dedicated to him.

Fascinated by teaching based on improvisation, as well as the discovery of new techniques, Eric-Maria Couturier created Les Ateliers du violoncelle with Noémie Boutin and Vincent Courtois, with whom he regularly performs.

He plays with the bows of Claudia Carmona and Jean Grumberger.