François Salque
is recognised as one of the most stunning cellists of his generation. His profound musical thinking and phenomenal technique have earned him many prestigious awards: François is a prize-winner at such international competitions as Lausanne (Unanimous First Prize), Geneva (2nd Prize), ARD Munich, Tchaikovsky in Moscow... He was each time given the highest distinctions ever awarded to a French cellist in the histories of these competitions.

His outstanding talent was equally recognised in the United-States where he won a Master of Music degree at Yale University as well as no less than six First Prizes in international competitions.

In France, he won the First Prize of the "Hommage to Paul Tortelier and Maurice Gendron" International Competition and the Pierre Fournier Prize.

François has already performed as a soloist and in chamber music in over fifty countries with some of the world’s most renowned artists (Jean-Claude Pennetier, Alexandre Tharaud, Michel Portal, Paul Meyer, Emmanuel Pahud, Itamar Golan, Renaud Capuçon, Barry Douglas, Gil Shaham...)

He has played as a soloist with such prestigious orchestras as the Münchner Rundfunk Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Moscow chamber orchestra, the Saint-Petersburg Camerata, the Baltica Chamber Orchestra, the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berner Philharmonic... as well as many French orchestras.

His recordings for BMG RCA, Arion or Lyrinx with pianists Eric Le Sage and Alexandre Tharaud were highly acclaimed and received many awards.

François Salque was for five years a member of the Ysaye String Quartet with which he played over 400 concerts and recorded seven CDs.

François is currently teaching at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU).

Eric Le Sage
is established as the representative of the French piano school, regularly boasted for his very subtle sound, his real sense of structure and poetic phrasing. Already when he was 20 years old, the Financial Times had described him as “an extremely cultivated disciple of the great French tradition of Schumann piano”. In 2010, die Zeit, praised his “ideal French piano aesthetics and clarity”

Eric is invited to perform as a soloist with orchestras at the highest level such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Saint-Louis Symphony Orchestra, Berlin’s Konzerthaus Orchester, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Bremer Philharmoniker, Dresden Philharmonie, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Münchner Kammer Orchester, Dresdner Philharmonie, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with conductors like Edo de Waart, Stéphane Denève, Pablo Gonzalez, Louis Langrée, Fabien Gabel, Michel Plasson, Alexander Liebreich, Kazuki Yamada, Alondra de la Parra, Lionel Bringuier, François Leleux, Michael Stern, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Sir Simon Rattle and Yannick Nézet-Seguin.

Eric has performed recitals and chamber music concerts in major venues across the world such as Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle, Paris Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Radio France, Cologne Philharmonie, Essen Philharmonie, Dresden Philharmonie, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Schwartzenberg’s Schubertiade, Salzburg Mozarteum, Ludwigsburg Festival, Prague’s Rudolfinium, Taipei National Concert Hall, Konzerthaus Vienna, Dublin’s celebrity series, Edinburgh International Festival, Düsseldorf Tonhalle, la Roque d’Anthéron Festival, Potsdam Sanssouci, Brussels’ Bozar, Berlin’s Boulezsaal, Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin Philharmonie.

In 2010 Eric Le Sage released Robert Schumann’s complete works for piano for the composer’s 200th anniversary. He has been invited to perform in this context in major venues around the world. These recordings for the French label Alpha (Outhere) were awarded in the summer 2010 the very prestigious Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Reviewers from the world over have written elated comments about what is already cited as a reference in the history of Schumann recordings. Following this successful project, Eric Le Sage recorded later a bundle of 5 CDs dedicated to Gabriel Fauré’s complete works for chamber music with piano, all covered with awards.

In 2018 he started recording Brahms’ complete chamber music cycle for B-Records. Volume 5 of this cycle was released in 2019. The same year he released Fauré’s Nocturnes on Alpha, an album which was critically acclaimed internationally, and he also recorded Schumann’s Dichterliebe with tenor Julian Pregardien on Alpha (2019).

A true chamber music lover, Eric regularly plays with friends like Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Quatuor Ebène, François Leleux, les Vents Français, François Salque, Lise Berthaud, Daishin Kashimoto, Olivier Latry and many other musicians.

Most of Eric Le Sage’s recordings on RCA-BMG, Naïve, EMI and now Alpha were highly acclaimed and awarded the most sought after awards in France: Diapason d’Or de l’Année, Choc de l’Année Classica, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix du Disque, Recording of the Month in Fono Forum and Gramophone, Victoire de la Musique.

Born in Aix en Provence, Eric Le Sage was the winner of major international competitions such as Porto in 1985 and the Robert Schumann competition in Zwickau, in 1989. He was also a prize-winner at Leeds International competition the same year, which allowed him to perform under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.

Pierre Fourchenneret
one of the associated artists of the Foundation Singer Polignac, has enjoyed a strong recognition right back to his tender years. Thus as soon as his twelfth year he was granted the first prize for violin at the CNR - National Regional Conservatory - in Nice; then at sixteen the first prize for violin and chamber music at the CNSM - National Superior Conservatory of Music - in Paris; and he was a prize winner for Nataxis, and for the Grand Prize of the International Competition of chamber music in Bordeaux.Enriched by the exceptional teachings he benefited from Alain Babouchian at the CNR in Nice, Olivier Chartier at the CNSM in Paris and Devy Erlih, Pierre Fourchenneret has wished to transmit as well and has become a teacher in the Superior Pole of Bordeaux. This recognition also gives him the pleasure to collaborate with the most gifted musicians of his generation and to give performances on the greatest national and international stages. This is how in 2013 he founds the quartet Strada with François Salque, Sarah Nemtanu and Lise Berthaud.

His virtuosity, "his intense, precise and colourful playing" (Classica) and his buoyancy are appreciated by French and international orchestras as the ones in Bordeaux Aquitaine, Dijon, the philharmonic in Nice, Brno, the Baltic in St Petersburg. With a passion for chamber music, he is also the violinist of the string trio 71 together with Eric Picard and Nicolas Bone.

In the course of his career as a soloist and as a chamber musician, his first record devoted to Mendelssohn trios comes out in 2007. It will be followed by a series of records, all of them unanimously praised by the critics. Thus he is awarded the Choc Classica for a record devoted to the French composer George Louis Onslow. In 2015 he publishes no less than three opus; the first one is dedicated to the quartet with piano no. 3 opus 3 by Mendelssohn; in the second one "Bohème", he interprets the Bach Chaconne, the Kodaly Duo with François Salque and the second Bartok sonata for violin and piano with Romain Descharmes. Finally for the third one, again with Romain Descharmes he records Beethoven's complete sonatas for violin and piano. Driven by his absolute passion for this composer, he deepens his work and at the beginning of this year 2016 he releases a record of his last two quartets. The year 2016 will be marked by numerous projects among which a record featuring the complete music for violin of Fauré. In 2017 he will start a cycle of the complete Brahms chamber music alongside Eric Lesage.

The work done by Pierre Fourchenneret which we can discover in particular with his different recordings, reflects his perpetual search for an aesthetic that is pure and free of affect, but also his deep love and respect of the text.

Wonderful on stage, Pierre Fourchenneret can also take risks and surprise his audience: "It was so revealing to listen to the quality of the silence of the public absolutely seized […] Overwhelming is the word that was on the music lovers' lips, in a state of shock"; "a large public had come and was conscious of their privilege in attending a rare concert" (Ouest France).