Agathe Blondel

Biography:

Agathe Blondel joined the Lyons Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM) at the age of sixteen and succeeded in winning the first prize for viola in 1994. She carried on her studies in the Cycle de Perfectionnement. In 1996, she joined both Cycles de Perfectionnement for viola and chamber music at the CNSM of Paris, in Bruno Pasquier’s and Christian Ivaldi’s class. She attended then Tabea Zimmermann’s class in Frankfurt for the Konzertexam.

Winner of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition (Isle of Man, UK)-also prize of the best performance of the modern piece, winner of the Firenze Vittorio Gui International chamber music Competition (Italy), laureate of the Maurice Vieux International Viola  Competition (Paris) in 2000, she is 1^st prize of the Jean Françaix International Viola Competition in 1998, 2^nd prize at the International Viola Competition « Premio Valentino Bucchi » of Rome in 1997, and 1^st prize of the Vierzon International Sonata Competition in 1997.

She is a soloist and chamber music guest of French and foreign Festivals : Hugo-Wolf Akademie Stuttgart, Albert Konzerte Freiburg, Musicades de Lyon, Académies de Saintes, Japan, Australia, Bulgaria, Italy…She is often invited by France Musiques, the Auditorium du Musée d’Orsay and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. She was recently a guest of Tabea Zimmermann in the Cité de la Musique for chamber music. She often plays with Isabelle Faust, Tabea Zimmermann, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Isabelle Moretti …

She recorded a Brahms and Schumann CD with her pianist sister Irène Blondel. Agathe is Solo Viola of Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen since 2009 and teaches in the Conservatoire de Rouen.