BIOGRAPHY
Violinist and composer, Sébastien Surel is a generous and passionate soloist and chamber music player who is unanimously hailed by his peers and by the critics.
He ardently defends the great repertoire from baroque to today’s music.
He is also an improviser and shares the stage with famous jazz, world music and tango artists.
As a music to image composer, his experience as a concert violonist and his profound knowledge of numerous musical styles allow him to very accurately grasp the producers’s ideas and wishes.
He obtained 1st prizes for violin and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in Sylvie Gazeau’s and Christian Ivaldi’s classes. He then studied with Pavel Vernikov, Shlomo Mintz,György Sebök, Eugène Istomin and the Ysaÿe Quartet.
Sébastien Surel has performed at the Philarmony in Berlin, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Herkulessaal in Munich, the Barbican Center (London), the Philharmonie in Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du Chatelet, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Santa Cecilia (Rome), Palais des Beaux-Arts in Bruxelles, the Dresden Opera House, the Kioi Hall, Suntory Hall and the Metropolitan Art Center (Japan), the Kirchner Culturel Centre in Buenos Aires . He has also taken part in prestigious jazz festivals in Montreux (Switzerland), Jazz à Vienne, Marciac (France) or Montréal.
In 2004 he founded the Talweg Trio with Eric-Maria Couturier and Romain Descharmes and they have been invited to perform in many European and Asian concert halls.
Sébastien Surel’s career is puncuated by many projects along with Martha Argerich, Roland Pidoux, Antoine Tamestit, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Claire Désert, Xavier Philips, Nicolas Altstaedt, Michel Moraguès, the Ébène Quartet, the Belcea quartet or also with members of the Wanderer Trio.
In 2014 he created the "Camara Pop Trio" with Vincent Segal and Tomas Gubitsch. Their virtuoso repertoire is intermingled with original compositions and arrangements using all the chamber music codes and bringing into them the culture and influences unique to each of the three musicians.
In 2018 he became 1st violin of the Ludwig String Quartet.
His musical adventures take him beyond the borders of what is called classical music with artists such as Juanjo Mosalini, Jean-Philippe Viret, Ibrahim Maalouf, David Linx or Richard Galliano with whom he gave over 500 concerts throughout the world.
Sébastien Surel has made some 20 recordings embracing all his musical styles.
He obtained the Certificate of Aptitude in violin in 2011 and he teaches violin and chamber music at the music Conservatory in the 12th district of Paris.
Along with violin, he also studied harmony, orchestration and composition since the age of twelve and he pursued his studies in writing with Alain Margoni (1991 – 1995).
Since a very early age, he has had a passion for musical production and he fully controls all the stages of a production project, from the recording to the editing, mixing and mastering.
He plays a rare violin of Giuseppe Guadagnini (1788)