Жерар Косе

Born in Toulouse in 1948 and taught first by his father, Gérard Caussé took first prizes in viola and in chamber music at the Paris Conservatoire in 1969. He played in the Quatuor Via Nova and the Quatuor Parrenin and was the violist of the Ensemble intercontemporain until 1982; he was among the players who gave the first performance of Dutilleux's quartet Ainsi la nuit, and Gérard Grisey dedicated to him the viola Prologue which opens Les Espaces acoustiques. His recordings for Erato, EMI and Philips run from Mozart and Berlioz to Brahms, Bartók and the moderns. He has taught the viola at the Paris Conservatoire and at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. He has played a Gasparo da Salò viola of 1560. He directed the chamber orchestra of Toulouse and co-founded the Camerata of the Caja Duero Foundation in Salamanca, and has given masterclasses in Verbier, Villecroze, Salzburg, Siena, Caracas and Lisbon. As a chamber musician he has played with Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Michel Portal, Paul Meyer, Renaud Capuçon and Nicholas Angelich, and gave the first performance of Dmitry Sitkovetsky's transcription of the Goldberg Variations with its author. His awards include the Grand Prix of the Académie Charles Cros, the Prix Gabriel Fauré and a prize from SACEM.