Dominique de Williencourt
Advised by Zino Francescatti and disciple of André Navarra, Philippe Muller, Marcel Bardon and Mstislav Rostropovitch, Dominique de Williencourt has been invited to play in more than forty countries. He was invited to perform in Austria, Colombia, South Korea, Romania, Russia, the US and in places as prestigious as Kuhmo (Finland), and more recently, Vilnius (Lithuania), Sofia (Bulgaria), Yokohama, Kyoto (Japan). He went as well to Brazil and China where he is invited now as a Professor of Honor.
Invited by the maestro Valentin Berlinsky of the Borodin Quartet to play at the Moscow Philarmony and to sit on the jury of the Shostakovich International String Quartet Competition in Moscow.
In 2015, he is invited to the Kyoto-Kansai Academy (Japan) and participates to the Milwaukee Festival (US) with the Fine Arts Quartet. A concert of his own compositions with orchestra has also been organized in Vilnius (Lituania). 2016 started with a great 3-week-long tour in the United States.
He has also had works written for him by Bacri, Choveaux, Collès, Florentz, Jevtic, Lancino, Larchikov, Lemeland, Menut, Silvestrini, Uebayashi, Vercken, Wolff and takes part in the creation.
He is inspired by his travels in the Sahara, the Yemen, the Caucasus, Central Asia and India to compose works on Touareg, Armenian and Tibetan themes… He composed more than 25 pieces with evocative titles. The Vexin Festival commissioned him a concerto for cello and string orchestra opus 16 – EMTO – En Mémoire Tragiquement Optimiste. It was created on October 7th 2012.
A documentary (of 52 minutes) on his exploration of silence whilst travelling with his cello through the deserts of the world was produced for the Mezzo channel. A first monograph CD (EA 0610/1) of his compositions has been produced, as well as a DVD « Bach in the desert » (EA 0806) which presents him travelling in the heart of the Sahara.
He was awarded the Grand Prix de l’Académie du Disque. He recorded Haydn concertos (EA 0408), Dvorak, Saint-Saens, Bacri, Brahms, Beethoven concertos, Florentz, Lancino, Landowski pieces, the Six Bach cello Suites (EA 0312) and Beethoven 5 Sonatas (EA 0406/1/2) with the pianist Emile Naoumoff after a concert at a full Théâtre des Champs Elysées (Paris). He participated to the DVD on Olivier Greif, which obtained a Diapason d’Or in June 2013.
A second monograph CD (EA1310) of his compositions, “The Russian influence”, has been brought out in May 2014. The promotional video – Bliss EMTO – is available on Youtube and has created a real buzz since last summer 2014.
He has just recorded the R. Schumann’s concerto, the Fauré’s Elegy with Jean Ferrandis-conductor and Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. This CD has been brought out last October 2015 at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées (Paris).
President of the society “Pour que l’Esprit Vive” (Let the spirit live) from 2006 to 2015, he started up an artists in residence program which has been supported by the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and Rencontres Musicales in the Abbey de la Prée (Indre region) with Nicolas Bacri.
Artistic director of Europ & Art, a music production company, he has been organizing since 1994 musical cruises WILLIENCOURT-CROISIRAMA with great artists: from Lord Yehudi Menuhin to Yuri Bashmet…
He teaches at the Conservatoire Supérieur of Paris CRR and has been made a Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (Knight of the National Order of Merit).
He created in 2009, with Jean Ferrandis, the Ensemble Edgédé, a string orchestra.
Dominique de Williencourt inspired the book by Jacqueline de Romilly De la Flute à la lyre (From the Flute to the lyre). The instrument maker Jean Bauer dedicated him the cello “La Nuit Transfigurée”.
A painted sculpture of a cello by the Belgian sculptor José Chapellier was dedicated to him in 2006. He participated to the Claude Sautet’s film « Un coeur en hiver ».
Since 2000, he has been playing an exceptional cello by J.Gagliano (1754) and using a bow made by F. X. Tourte (1825).
