Professor at the IESM of Aix-en-Provence
Violin
Geneviève Laurenceau is regarded as one of the most brilliant and multifaceted representatives of the French violin school. Her many activities as a soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and festival director make her a consummate musician who lives her passion in all its forms.
She began playing the violin at the age of three in Strasbourg, her hometown. The instrument, whose voice is close to that of the human voice, quickly became the embodiment and sound of her dreams—and has never left her since.
Her mentors, Wolfgang Marschner, Zakhar Bron, and Jean-Jacques Kantorow, shaped her into an artist of many dimensions, standing at the crossroads of three great European violin traditions. From a very young age, Geneviève gained experience on stage.
After several international successes and a first prize at the Novosibirsk International Competition, she won the fifth Violon de l’Adami competition and recorded her first album on that occasion, together with pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuburger.
Since then, Geneviève Laurenceau has been invited to perform as a soloist with major French and international orchestras, under the baton of conductors such as Michel Plasson, Walter Weller, François-Xavier Roth, Tugan Sokhiev, Thomas Søndergård, Antony Hermus, and Christian Arming, among others.
As Premier Violon Supersoliste of the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse from 2007 to 2017, she fully embraced this experience until her intense schedule eventually led her to pursue her solo career further.
In 2011, Geneviève Laurenceau was named “Artist of the Year” by ResMusica.
Loving the stage, sharing, and deeply believing in the essential values of art, culture, and music, Geneviève Laurenceau is passionate about human and artistic encounters.
This is reflected in projects such as the string quintet Smoking Joséphine, founded in 2018, and La Symphonie des oiseaux (“The Symphony of Birds”), a poetic and musical show created with bird imitators Johnny Rasse and Jean Boucault.
Committed to the music of her time, she regularly collaborates with composers such as Benjamin Attahir, Karol Beffa, Benoît Menut, Fabien Touchard, and Philippe Hersant, who have dedicated works to her.
Her discography, often acclaimed, gives pride of place to the French repertoire.
Drawn to the world of teaching in 2017—when Philippe Jaroussky invited her to join the faculty of his academy at La Seine Musicale—Geneviève currently teaches violin at the IESM (Higher Education Center for Music) in Aix-en-Provence.
She is also the artistic director of the Obernai Music Festival, which she founded in 2009.
Geneviève plays a violin made by the Turin luthier Cappa, dating from 1700.