Violoncelliste
Biography
Born in 1994, Valentin de Francqueville is a multi-faceted cellist who loves to combine passion, artistic demands and inventiveness. All this with a deep desire to share and exchange with the musical world around him. After his debut in Reims with Marc-Didier Thirault, he entered School of Music and Dance in Lille with Guillaume Lafeuille and Jean-Christophe Lannoy where he obtained his bachelor’s degree then his State Diploma as a cello teacher. A spell in Aubervilliers with Florian Lauridon and in Turin with Claudio Pasceri led him to the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp where he obtained a master’s degree with distinction in interpretation in Justus Grimm’s class.
He finds his inspiration in the teachings of Xavier Gagnepain, Gary Hoffman, Julius Berger, Lluis Claret and Gregorio Robino, as well as master classes with the Artis quartets, Modigliani, Ysaÿe, Ebène, Danel and the Leos trio.
A seasoned orchestral musician, lover of the symphonic and operatic repertoire, he performs regularly with the Lille National Orchestra and the Flanders Opera Orchestra. He has played under the baton of numerous conductors; Christian Zacharias, Jean Claude Casadesus, Alexandre Bloch, Marc Minkowski, Alondra de la Parra, Alejo Pérez, Cornelius Meister, Peter Rundel, Franck Braley, Roman Brogli Sacher to name but a few. He had the pleasure of being selected to take part in the Pacific Music Festival in Japan in July 2019 under the baton of Marin Alsop, Christoph Eschenbach and Valery Gergiev.
Passionate about chamber music, he regularly performs with the cello quartet Celliband, the duo CelloGuitarShow, the accordionist Alexandre Prusse and the pianist Louis Dechambre. He took part in
the Ars Terra festivals in the Authie valley, Musique en église in Pas-de-Calais, Musica Nigella on the Opal Coast, Chambre à part in Lille, the Conques music festival, the Estovest in Turin, the Musiques à Espanels festival and the Grandes Marées festival at Mont-Saint-Michel...
In 2022, he joined the creative team of the minute opera The legend of the Flying Dutchman, directed by Denis Mignien, co-produced by the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, La clef des chants and the Cie Reine de Cœur, currently on tour.
A theatre lover, Valentin created the musical reading La Caresse du Loup with the actress Isabelle Richard in 2021, based on the novel by Catherine Robert and works by J-S Bach, Giovanni Sollima and György Ligeti. He is the associate of the actor André Loncin with the Petit Théâtre company for the concert-reading The Memoirs of Hadrien by Marguerite Yourcenar. He also created a show for young audiences, Madecasse, with the company MOts en MUSique. With nearly 40 performances, this show evolved between 2014 and 2016 in the Hauts-de-France.
Open to modern music, he played with the sound engineer Wax Tailor, and founded the French song group Dimanche Soir, in 2016 with three friends.
A confident teacher and bearer of the state cello teaching diploma (DE), in 2017 he replaced teachers in the conservatories in Cambrai (chamber music) and Saint-Omer (cello). He taught between 2016 and 2019 at the Vivaldi and Estivades du Val-de-Saône summer music courses.
A committed musician, in April 2020 he created the music and animated film festival Des Bobines et des Sons in Trigny.
Valentin plays with a cello made by François Varcin (2017) and a bow made by Emmanuel Carlier (2021).