David Grimal, artistic director
The violinist David Grimal, equally committed to the solo and chamber repertories, appears in the world’s leading classical music venues. As an innovative artist, he aims to reinvent musical practice by leading several projects successfully developing the spirit of "working together".
International career
David Grimal performs in the world’s leading venues, including Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Vienna Musikverein, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Zurich Tonhalle, Lincoln Center in New York, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Ferenc Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the National Concert Hall in Taiwan and Bozar in Brussels.
He performs regularly as a soloist with such orchestras as the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Berliner Symphoniker, the Russian National Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Orchestra of the Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon and Sinfonia Varsovia. Among the conductors with whom he has appeared are Christoph Eschenbach, Heinrich Schiff, Lawrence Foster, Emmanuel Krivine, Mikhail Pletnev, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Peter Eötvös, Andris Nelsons and Jukka Pekka Saraste.
Many composers have dedicated works to him, including Marc-André Dalbavie, Brice Pauset, Thierry Escaich, Lisa Lim, Jean-François Zygel, Alexandre Gasparov, Victor Kissine, Fuminori Tanada, Ivan Fedele, Philippe Hersant, Anders Hillborg, Oscar Bianchi, Guillaume Connesson, Frédéric Verrières and Richard Dubugnon.
A sought-after chamber musician, he is a guest at the leading international festivals and chooses to appear regularly in piano trio formation with Philippe Cassard and Anne Gastinel and in the string quartet repertory with his friends of the Quatuor les Dissonances: Hans-Peter Hofmann, David Gaillard and Xavier Phillips.
As if in natural prolongation of this urge to share with others, he has created ‘L’Autre Saison’, a season of concerts for the homeless in Paris. David Grimal was appointed Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2008. He teaches the violin at the Musikhochschule in Saarbrücken and plays the ‘Ex-Roederer’ Stradivarius of 1710 with a bow by François-Xavier Tourte.
David Grimal has recorded for the EMI, Harmonia Mundi, Aeon, Naïve, Transart and Dissonances Records labels. His recordings have received acclaim in the press, with such awards as BBC Music Magazine Choice, Choc de l’Année in Classica, Arte Sélection and ffff in Télérama.
Artistic director of Les Dissonances
For the past ten years he has devoted part of his career to developing Les Dissonances, of which he is artistic director. In this laboratory of ideas, conceived as a collective of musicians, David Grimal and his friends experience music as a joy rediscovered and tackle the symphonic repertory in the spirit of chamber music. The only ensemble that explores the large-scale symphonic repertory without a conductor, Les Dissonances have established residencies in prestigious institutions that offer long-term collaborations, including the Philharmonie de Paris, the Opéra de Dijon and Le Volcan in Le Havre, and appear regularly all over Europe. Since 2013, Les Dissonances have released their recordings on their own label, Dissonances Records, to high critical acclaim.
We work together in the sense of community of mind, a gathering of very strong positive energy and joy. This vertical aspiration is expressed in a horizontal space of liberty, equity and fraternity.
Armed with this experience, David Grimal has also developed his sense of collective music-making with other orchestras, including the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lorraine, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest String Orchestra (Budapesti Vonósok), the Kraków Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Know more
More information on David Grimal's website : www.davidgrimal.com
Violin concertos
