Dominique de Villencourt

Trained in the French school — André Navarra, Philippe Muller and Marcel Bardon were his teachers — Dominique de Williencourt was born in 1959 and has divided his working life between the cello and composition. As a player he tours Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East, in recital and in chamber music, and sits on juries and academy faculties. His own scores take their subjects from places: Dharamsala, the Mountain of Spices, an octet of cellos inspired by the Dalai Lama in exile, was first heard in Notre-Dame de Paris to mark the year 2000 in a performance by two hundred cellists; Etchmiadzin and Mount Ararat draws on Armenian material; Beer-sheba, for cello and string orchestra, was commissioned by the Vilnius chamber orchestra in May 2004; and Abraham and Isaac, for baritone, flute and strings, was given at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in February 2007. He worked with Rostropovich as well as the French cellists, and was appointed to teach at the Paris regional conservatoire in 1984. The cello concerto En Memoire Tragiquement Optimiste and the opera L'Apocalypse d'Icare stand beside the travel pieces; he recorded the complete Bach suites at the Varna Summer festival in 2021, and established with Nicolas Bacri an artists' residency at La Pree. His opera L'Apocalypse d'Icare received its premiere at the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris in May 2024.