Sébastien HURTAUD

Cello

Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris

Cellist Sébastien Hurtaud is internationally acclaimed as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. The press is full of praise for the cellist’s playing:

Artamag: “As André Navarra once did, capturing the work with a great sound that sings and says(…), ”Sébastien Hurtaud has the soul of a Mstislav Rostropovich and the virtuosity of a Feuermann(…) BBC Mag.

After graduating from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris in the class of Jean-Marie Gamard and Karine Georgian at the Royal Northern College of Music, and chamber music in cello-piano duet in the class of Réna Scherechevsakaya at the Conservatoire de Colmar, Sébastien Hurtaud quickly began his career as guest principal cellist at La Monnaie before winning prizes in international competitions, which propelled him into a solo career. Having achieved an artistic synthesis of the French and Russian cello schools, Hurtaud won the Namburg Foundation International Competition and was the first Frenchman to win the Adam International Competition in New Zealand. He then met one of his mentors, German conductor Maestro Werner-Andreas Albert.

Past seasons have featured Sébastien Hurtaud in Richard Strauss’s Don Quichotte with the Katowice Orchestra, Gulda’s concerto at the Bratislava Philharmonic, Dvorak’s concerto with the Metz Orchestra, Elgar’s concerto with the New Zealand National Orchestra, Jacques Offenbach’s Concerto Militaire with the Orchestre de Bretagne, Boccherini concertos with the Panama City Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de La Garde Républicaine at Les Invalides, the complete 6 suites by JS Bach at the Valletta International Festival in Malta, etc.

He will be recording his next CD with pianist Paméla Hurtado at Philips Hall in Christchurch, New Zealand. Alongside his life as a soloist and teacher, Sébastien plays regularly with regular chamber music partners such as Slovenian violinist Lana Trotovsek, Spanish pianist Maria Canyigueral and Dutch pianist Pieter-Jelle Deboer. With his wife, concert pianist Paméla Hurtado, he founded a duo by recording Paul Hindemith’s complete music for cello and piano on the Naxos label. Their next recording will take place in Christchurch, New Zealand, at the end of 2024.

Mstislav Rostropovich, at a meeting in Manchester, urged the young cellist to create new works for cello. On the strength of this invaluable advice, Sébastien Hurtaud commissioned New Zealand composer Gareth Farr to write the “Chemin des Dames” concerto, dedicated to the memory of the soldiers of the First World War, which he will premiere with the New Zealand National Orchestra and the Orchestre National de Metz. The cellist gave the Paris premiere of Ballade (against Nazi barbarism) and Pas de deux by composer Youli Galperine. Currently, Argentine composers Claudio Alsuyet and Matthew Hindson have dedicated their first works for cello and orchestra to him, which will take the cellist on tour in Latin America and Australia in the 2024 and 2025 seasons. He will premiere Claudio Alsuyet’s concerto “Le Messager de la nuit”, inspired by Antoine de St Exupéry’s book “Vol de Nuit”, with the Lamoureux orchestra conducted by Adrien Perruchon at the Laon festival and at La Seine-Musicale in October 2024. Sébastien Hurtaud has just been appointed professor at the Ecole Normale Alfred Cortot.

Sébastien Hurtaud, a self-taught conductor encouraged by the legendary Philippe Entremont, will make his debut as a conductor in the 2025/2026 season.