Aurélien Pascal
Cello

In an extraordinary display of dazzling virtuosity and riveting music-making, 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, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, the chamber orchestras of Cologne, Zurich and Luxembourg, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony 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.

As a chamber musician, Pascal has shared the stage with artists such as Renaud Capuçon, András Schiff, Alexandre Kantorow, Liya Petrova, Augustin Dumay, Tabea Zimmermann, Pavel Kolesnikov, Clara-Jumi Kang, Josquin Otal, Sélim Mazari, Emmanuel Pahud, as well as ensembles like the Modigliani Quartet, Hermès Quartet and Trio Arnold, amongst others. In 2025, he performed on tour in France, London and Taiwan alongside Gautier Capuçon as part of the “Capucelli” project for seven cellos, led by Capuçon.

Pascal has performed at prestigious festivals including the Radio France et Montpellier, La Roque d’Anthéron, Colmar, Prades and Schloss Elmau festivals, La Chaise-Dieu, Easter Festival Aix-en-Provence, Nohant Festival Chopin, Beethovenfest Bonn, La Folle Journée in Nantes, Tokyo and Warsaw, Angers Pianopolis, Marvão International Music Festival, Les Rencontres Musicales in Évian, Nîmes and Calenzana, Just Classik Festival, Classical Bridge International Music Festival in Seoul, French May Arts Festival in Hong Kong, as well as 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.