Christophe Desjardins

Born in 1962 in Caen, Christophe Desjardins studied with Serge Collot at the Paris Conservatoire and with Bruno Giuranna at the University of the Arts in Berlin. In 1986 he won the Maurice Vieux Competition and was appointed principal violist at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie; in 1990 he became a member of the Ensemble intercontemporain. Much sought after as a performer of new music, Desjardins has given the world premieres of works by Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Michael Jarrell, Emmanuel Nuñes, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann. He has appeared as a soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lyon, and the Southwest, North, and West German Radio Symphony Orchestras. His solo CD from 2005, Voix d’Alto, which contains music by Berio and Feldman, won the Diapason d’Or and Le Monde de la Musique’s Choc Award. Desjardins, who teaches at the Lyon Conservatoire, plays a Francesco Goffriller viola (around 1730).

August 2011