François Weigel

Biography

François Weigel studied piano and composition at the Cologne Musikhochschule, conducting at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Musique de Paris, and analysis, piano and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he won several first prizes. He had advanced piano studies with Günther Ludwig, Yvonne Loriod and Alexis Weissenberg.

He regularly performs throughout Europe, including in Vienna, Salzburg, Graz, Klagenfurt, in the Berlin Philharmonie, in Hamburg, Bonn, Essen, Brussels, Geneva, Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Warsaw, Katowice, Riga, Tallinn, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Naples, Verone, Stresa, in Paris (Salle Gaveau, Théâtre du Châtelet, Salle Pleyel) in the international festivals of Evian, Radio-France Montpellier, Reims' Flâneries, La Roque d'Anthéron, Peralada, Ravello, also in the operas of Avignon, Lille, Marseille, Nancy, Nice, Toulon, Tours, Versailles, Buenos Aires, Dallas.

He is invited internationally as soloist throughout Europe as well as the Americas. He has played with the Hamburg Philharmonic (Ingo Metzmacher), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Pinchas Steinberg), Philharmonique de Radio-France (Marek Janowski), Orchestre National de Lille (Paul Polivnick), Orchestre National d'Ile de France, Orchestre National de Lorraine (Jacques Mercier), Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier (Enrique Diemecke), Nouvel Orchestre de Saint-Etienne (Patrick Fournillier), Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse (Daniel Klajner), Philharmonie des Nations (Laurence Dale), the Mexico National University Philharmonic Orchestra (Carlos Miguel Prieto), the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra (Emil Tabakov), the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra (Alexei Kornienko), the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Nicolai Alexeev), the Polnish Radio National Symphonic Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra (Antoni Wit).

He has also conducted the Chamber Orchestra from Bratislava, the Latvia Chamber Orchestra, the Ankara Bilkent Symphonic Orchestra and the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra with his own orchestra transcriptions. The Paris Bastille Opera has regularly invited him as chorus master, to prepare notably contemporary repertoire including Adriana mater by Kaija Saariaho, Saint François d'Assise by Olivier Messiaen, and also the German repertoire (Wozzeck, Tannhäuser, Die Frau ohne Schatten).

He has experience in chamber music, partnering the Belvedere Trio (members of the Wienne Philharmonic) and the Amarcord Quartet (soloists from the Berliner Philharmonic), the Quatuor Manfred in Salzburg, the instrumentalist Thomas Bloch, the violinists James Ehnes, Shunske Sato, Sacha Rojdestvensky, the viola players Toby Hoffman, Vladimir Mendelssohn, the cellists Jean Ferry, Robert Nagy, the clarinetists Jean-Marc Fessard, Florent Héau, the pianists Frederic Chiu and Pierre de Bethmann in two pianos improvisation jazz sessions.

He gives numerous recitals with singers such as Inva Mula in Paris (Salle Gaveau, France Inter, Opéra de Paris), Julie Fuchs, Magali Léger (Reims Festival), Nathalie Manfrino, Katarina Jovanovic (Reims Festival), Elena Vink (France Musique), Clémentine Margaine, Sophie Koch, Anna Steiger (Perelada Festival), Sophie Graf, Qiulin Zhang, Mary-Jane Johnson (France Musique), Laurence Dale (Salle Gaveau, France Musique, Marseille's Opera, Montpellier, Buenos Aires), Valery Serkin, Manfred Hemm (France Musique), Martin Snell (France Télévisions), Alexandre Duhamel, Philippe Do, Ferruccio Furlanetto (Stresa International Festival), André Heyboer, Richard Rittelmann, Jean-Philippe Courtis, Ruggero Raimondi (Salle Gaveau, France Télévisions, Monaco).

He has received several distinctions among which the prize of the Yehudi Menuhin foundation, the Philip Morris Foundation, the Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, the French academic palms for his artistic action in the high schools. He is member of the jury of international competition (Martha Argerich Foundation), of the French national Claude Kahn competition and from the Ecole normale de musique de Paris.

Recordings

Awards