Xavier Phillips

Xavier Phillips was born in Paris in 1971, began the cello at six, entered the Conservatoire at fifteen to study with Philippe Muller and left it in 1989 with a First Prize; competition honours followed in Belgrade, Moscow, Paris and Helsinki, among them a special prize at the Tchaikovsky and a unanimous special prize at the Rostropovich Competition. That last brought him to Mstislav Rostropovich's notice and began a mentorship of years. After his Orchestre de Paris debut in 2001 Rostropovich engaged him for Prokofiev's Sinfonia concertante with the National Symphony in Washington and with the New York Philharmonic, and within the year for the Rococo Variations in Chicago. At the reopening of the Salle Pleyel in 2006 he played Dutilleux's Tout un monde lointain; the composer was in the hall, and said afterwards that the cellist had complete command of the piece and had drawn out the sense of its title. He gave the first performance of Jean-Louis Agobet's cello concerto in 2010, and has played with the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France under Muti, Masur, Eschenbach, Conlon, Inbal, Ono, Janowski and Fedoseyev. A Grammy nomination as instrumental soloist of the year came in 2015. He teaches at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne in Sion and plays a Matteo Goffriller of 1710. His discography has been singled out as well, with the Choc of Le Monde de la Musique for the Kodály, for a disc of Lalo, Fauré and Caplet, and for the Schnittke, Shostakovich and Prokofiev sonatas with the pianist Hüseyin Sermet, and the Grand Prix du Disque for the chamber music of Albéric Magnard. The American engagements went on in Seattle, and chamber music has kept an equal place beside the solo career.