François Weigel

Education

Weigel^[1] was born in Trier, Germany. His first piano instruction was at age four in Germany where he had spent his childhood. At age twelve he played organ and conducted a choir who performed his own works. He was fifteen years old when he was successful candidate at the competitive examination for the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in 1979, where he studied composition. He was admitted the next year to study piano, harmony, counterpoint, analysis, chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris^[2], where he won several first prizes. He had afterwards advanced studies in conducting at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien and the École Normale de Musique de Paris. During a piano solo recital in 1989 in Paris (Salle Gaveau), he was immediately noticed by the agent Michel Glotz (impresario of Maria Callas and Herbert von Karajan's artistic director for Deutsche Grammophon), who selected him the morning after for his concert agency, Musicaglotz. Following the death of Michel Glotz in 2010^[3], he joined the Valmalète's concert agency in Paris.^[4]

Among his teachers were Günther Ludwig at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, Alexander Jenner at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Bertrand Molia and Éliane Richepin in France, and at the Conservatoire de Paris: Yvonne Loriod, Pierre Reach in piano, Jean-Sébastien Béreau in orchestra conducting, Bruno Pasquier, Jean-Claude Bernède, Maurice Crut in chamber music, Annie Chaland, Alain Bernaud, Roger Boutry in harmony, Jean-Paul Holstein in counterpoint, Françoise Rieunier in analysis, Alain Weber in composition. He had advanced studies with Alexis Weissenberg.

Pianist

He regularly performs throughout Europe, including the Berliner Philharmonie, the Hamburger Philharmonie, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, the Warsaw Philharmonic, in Vienna, Salzburg, Graz, Klagenfurt, Eisenstadt, Geneva (Victoria Hall), Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Katowice, Tallinn, Riga, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Naples, Verone, in Paris (Salle Gaveau,^[5] Théâtre du Châtelet, Salle Pleyel, Musée d'Orsay, Musée du Louvre (broadcast on Radio Classique), at the Opéra d'Avignon, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Marseille, Opéra de Nancy, Opéra de Nice, Opéra de Toulon, Grand Théâtre de Tours, Royal Opera of Versailles, in the international festivals of Buenos Aires, Dallas, Stresa, Ravello, Mexico, Evian,^[6] Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron.^[7] The Flâneries musicales de Reims where he is participating during fifteen years (playing more than 33 different programs on this period) is the beginning of a long collaboration with the French producer and music manager Hervé Corre de Valmalète.

He is invited internationally as soloist in a wide range of concertos throughout Europe as well as the Americas. He has played with the Philharmoniker Hamburg, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre national de Lille, Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, Orchestre national de Lorraine^[8], Orchestre national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, Nouvel Orchestre de Saint-Etienne, Orchestre symphonique de Mulhouse, Philharmonie der Nationen, the Mexico National University Philharmonic Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra^[9], the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra^[10], the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra.

He collabored with the conductors Marek Janowski, Ingo Metzmacher, Pinchas Steinberg, Nicolai Alexeev, Gisele Ben-Dor^[11], Roger Boutry, Peter Burian, Ahmed El Saedi, Enrique Diemecke, Patrick Fournillier, Daniel Klajner, Alexei Kornienko, Jacques Mercier^[12], Jiri Mikula, Marc Piollet, Paul Polivnick, Victor Pühl, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Emil Tabakov, Antoni Wit.

Conductor

He has also conducted the Bratislava Chamber Orchestra, the Latvian Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, and the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra with his own transcriptions for piano solo and strings. 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).

Chamber music

He has experience in chamber music, partnering the Belvedere Trio (members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra), the Amarcord Quartet^[13] (soloists from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), the Quatuor Manfred (first prize of the Banff and the Evian International String Quartet Competition) in Salzburg, the instrumentalist Thomas Bloch^[14], the violinists James Ehnes, Shunske Sato, Sasha Rojdestvensky, the viola players Toby Hoffman, member of the Quatuor Enesco, Vladimir Mendelssohn, the cellists Jean Ferry (member of the Paris Opera National Orchestra), Robert Nagy (member of the Vienna Philharmonic), the clarinetists Jean-Marc Fessard, Florent Héau, the American pianist Frederic Chiu,^[15] the jazzman Pierre de Bethmann in two pianos improvisation sessions.

Accompanist

He gives numerous recitals with singers such as Julie Fuchs, Sophie Graf, Katarina Jovanovic (Reims Festival)^[16], Armelle Khourdoïan, Nathalie Manfrino, Inva Mula in Paris (Salle Gaveau, France Inter, Paris Opera)^[17] Magali Léger (Reims Festival), Elena Vink (France Musique), Albane Carrère, Delphine Haidan, Mary-Jane Johnson (France Musique), Clémentine Margaine, Sophie Koch^[18] Anna Steiger (Perelada Festival), Qiulin Zhang, Kevin Amiel, Laurence Dale (on France Musique, Salle Gaveau, Opéra de Marseille, Opéra national de Montpellier, Buenos Aires)^[19], Philippe Do, Mark Milhofer, Valery Serkin, Jean-Philippe Courtis (Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne), Alexandre Duhamel, Manfred Hemm (on France Musique), André Heyboer, Vladimir Kapshuk, Florian Sempey, Martin Snell (on France Télévisions), Richard Rittelmann, Ferruccio Furlanetto (Stresa International Music Festival). Patrick de Carolis asked him to play with Ruggero Raimondi for the motion picture Le Grand Tour^[20] It was the start of a long collaboration with Raimondi in recitals at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, Salle Gaveau, Radio Classique, France Télévisions.

Broadcasting

Numerous of recitals were broadcast live on France Musique (Festival de La Roque-d'Anthéron,^[21] Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Opéra d'Avignon, Maison de Radio France,^[22]) on Radio Classique (auditorium from the Musée d'Orsay, auditorium from the Musée du Louvre), on Radio Suisse Romande (Victoria Hall in Geneva), Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, Deutsche Welle. Since 2010 he collaborates with the journalist and writer Alain Duault for concerts in the French operas presenting the movies On the steps of the great composers or the Musical Promenades in European Music Cities. He appears regularly on radio and television across Europe: Le Fou du roi with Stéphane Bern, Carrefour de Lodéon with Frédéric Lodéon on France Inter, Fauteuils d'Orchestre with Anne Sinclair, Le Grand Tour^[23] with Patrick de Carolis on France Televisions, Le monde est à vous with Jacques Martin on Antenne 2, and newscast on French TV with Patrick Poivre d'Arvor.