In an extraordinary display of dazzling virtuosity and riveting music-making, 29-year-old Aurélien Pascal confirmed that the future of music is in good hands. His remarkable talent has earned him significant accomplishments in international competitions including Second Prize at the 2013 International Paulo Competition, the Grand Prize, Audience Prize and Best Performance of the Toch Concerto at the 2014 Emanuel Feuermann Competition, as well as Fourth Prize at the 2017 Queen Elisabeth Competition as the youngest finalist. He was the Adami “Révélation Classique” in 2013, and was named “Révélation soliste instrumental” at the French Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2023.
Pascal has collaborated with top orchestras across the world such as Orchestre de Paris, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the chamber orchestras of Cologne, Zurich and Luxembourg, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra etc, under the baton of Christoph Poppen, András Schiff, Pascal Rophé, Augustin Dumay, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Okko Kamu, Lawrence Foster, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Clemens Schuldt, Corinna Niemeyer, Gilbert Varga, Emil Tabakov, Marcus Bosch and more.
In the realm of chamber music, Pascal has shared the stage with artists such as Renaud Capuçon, András Schiff, Augustin Dumay, Tabea Zimmermann, Pavel Kolesnikov, Clara-Jumi Kang, Emmanuel Pahud, Alexandre Kantorow and Liya Petrova, as well as ensembles like the Modigliani Quartet, Hermès Quartet and Trio Arnold, amongst others.
Pascal has performed at prestigious festivals including the Verbier, La Roque d’Anthéron, Radio France et Montpellier, Colmar, Prades and Schloss Elmau festivals, Easter Festival Aix-en-Provence, Beethovenfest Bonn, La Folle Journée in Nantes and Tokyo, Les Rencontres Musicales in Évian, Nîmes and Calenzana, La Chaise-Dieu, Angers Pianopolis, Marvão International Music Festival and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where he was awarded the Audience Prize in 2015.
In 2016, Pascal recorded Franz Danzi’s Cello Concerto with Munich Chamber Orchestra and Howard Griffiths for Sony Classical. This recording received critical acclaim, with Pizzicato praising his playing as “wonderfully natural” and his interpretation as “flawless both musically and technically”, and The Strad acknowledging his “unique virtuosity and intuitive musicality”. His CD of Kodaly’s Cello Sonata for La Musica received a Choc-Classica and the Diapason Découverte in 2019. He has also recorded works by Brahms, Schubert, Ravel, Nino Rota and Enesco, with Augustin Dumay, Henri Demarquette, Eric Le Sage, Paloma Kouider, Svetlin Roussev and Paul Meyer for various labels like Onyx Classics and Alpha Classics. In 2021, his recorded performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No 1 with Hong Kong Sinfonietta was released as the concert film Back On Stage III: DESTINY which opened the MOViE MOViE “Life is Art” film festival in Hong Kong.
Born in 1994 into a musical family, Pascal studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Philippe Muller and attended masterclasses with János Starker. He furthered his studies with Frans Helmerson and Gary Hoffman at the Kronberg Academy in Germany. He plays a French Adolphe Gand cello from 1850.
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