Profile

Pierre Amoyal is one of the most brilliant violinists of his generation. He began his music studies very early and was awarded a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de musique de Paris at the age of 12. At the age of 17 he departed for Los Angeles to study with Jascha Heifetz, with whom he studied for five years. There he enjoyed the privilege of performing chamber music in concert as well as recording with Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky. 

Since then Pierre Amoyal has been invited to play with the most eminent orchestras and has performed throughout the world. He regularly works with the most important conductors of our time: Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Eliahu Inbal, Stanislas Skrowaczewski, Günter Herbig, Georges Prêtre, Guennadi Roshdestvensky, Kurt Sanderling, Simon Rattle, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and Myung Whun Chung. He recently performed the German premier of Dutilleux’ Violin Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Lorin Maazel. 

During the season 2011-2012, Pierre Amoyal will perform with orchestras and recitals in Salzburg, Japan, Finland, Russia, Germany, Belgium, Serbia, Bosnia, France and Switzerland.

He will be the member of jury of the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in May.

He will give Master Classes in Japan, in Germany, at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, at the Lausanne Summer Academy and at the String Seminar in Toho Gakuen School of music in Tokyo.

In conjunction with the Lausanne Conservatory Haute Ecole de Musique Pierre Amoyal founded the Camerata Lausanne, an ensemble made up of some 14 talented young musicians from around the world. The Camerata will play several concerts in Belgium, Russia and Switzerland. They have recorded a CD of Mendelssohn octet and Bach Concertos for violin, and Tchaikovsky, Serenade and Souvenir de Florence, several projects are already planned for Camerata de Lausanne’s 10 years anniversary in 2012 including the recording of Mozart, the collaboration and creation of Danse and music with Philippe Saire at the Opéra de Lausanne, the Musical collaboration with two ensemble together Moscow Virtuosi and Camerata de Lausanne.

His numerous recordings for Decca include works by Fauré (with Pascal Rogé), Chausson, Franck (with the Ysaÿe Quartet and Pascal Rogé), as well as concertos by Dutilleux, Saint-Saëns and Respighi (Concerto Gregoriano, with Charles Dutoit and the French National Orchestra). His most recent recordings for Harmonia Mundi include Grieg’s three sonatas and Brahms’ violin sonatas, all with Frederic Chiu, and René Koering’s Violin Concerto with Friedemann Layer.

Pierre Amoyal is also a passionate teacher. He was appointed a professor at the National Conservatory in Paris at a very young age and now teaches at the Lausanne Conservatory (Haute Ecole de Musique). He is the artistic director of the Lausanne Summer Music Academy, devoted exclusively to the violin/piano repertoire, which he founded with Alexis Weissenberg and now co-directs with Bruno Canino.

In 1985 Pierre Amoyal was named a Chevalier of Arts and Lettres and in 1995 was raised to the rank of Chevalier de l'Ordre National de Mérite. In 2002 he received the Prix du Rayonnement de la Fondation Vaudoise pour la création artistique and in 2006, the Prix de la Ville de Lausanne.

Pierre Amoyal plays one of the world’s most celebrated violins, the Kochansky Stradivarius from 1717 which was miraculously recovered in Italy in 1991 after its theft in 1987.

Pierre Amoyal is a very engaging virtuoso whose exceptional talents never impeded his love of hard work or the development of the most essential human qualities.