Yan Levionnois & Guillaume Bellom
Biographie Yan Levionnois & Guillaume Bellom
Yan Levionnois
A prize winner of some of the most prestigious international cello competitions, such as the Rostropovich and Queen Elisabeth International Competitions, Yan Levionnois stands out by his inquisitive mind which incites him to diversify his artistic experiences.
Immersed in a musical environment from an early age, he began playing the cello with his father before going on to study with Philippe Muller in Paris, with Truls Mørk in Oslo and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York with Timothy Eddy. His career quickly led him to meet and share the stage with artists from all backgrounds, such as David Grimal, Nicholas Angelich, Pierre Fouchenneret, Léa Hennino, Richard Galliano and Elliot Jenicot. Since 2016, his enthusiastic collaboration with the pianist Guillaume Bellom has led them to often appear in recital. Finally, in 2019 he became a member of the Hermès quartet, exploring a repertoire of an inexhaustible richness.
Equally at ease in the concerto repertoire, he has performed as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, under the baton of conductors such as Heinrich Schiff, Daniele Gatti and Dimitry Sitkovetsky. An all-round musician, he regularly plays as a principal chair member in the conductor-less ensemble “Les Dissonances”, tackling with them the great orchestral scores, from Beethoven’s Symphonies to the works of Stravinsky, Bartók and Ravel.
These various experiences have nourished his already abundant discography, which includes about fifteen opuses and was unanimously acclaimed by the press and the public alike, since the release of his first CD dedicated to the solo cello repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries. A strong defender of the music of his time, he has worked with many contemporary composers. The première of Richard Dubugnon’s Concerto for cello and wind orchestra was the subject for the movie “Ce qu’il faut de silences”, directed by Thierry Augé. Also noteworthy are his recordings of Camille Pépin’s The Sound of Trees, a concerto for cello and clarinet, and Dolmen, a work for solo cello composed by Kryštof Mařatka.
In a different field, his collaboration with the composer Romain Trouillet led him to record many soundtracks intended for theatre and cinema, such as the shows of the mentalist Viktor Vincent or the music for the short film “Homesick” by Koya Kamura.
Fond of Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry, he designed “Illuminations”, a show mixing poems from the eponymous album with Britten’s Suites for solo cello, in which he himself appears as the narrator, and which has also been recorded on CD.
He had the great fortune to be involved in the making of his cello, made by Patrick Robin, and to play with a bow made for him by Yannick Le Canu. Since 2016, he has been an associate artist with the Singer-Polignac Foundation in Paris.
Guillaume Bellom
has one of the most atypical path of his generation, pursuing studies in both violin and piano, from the conservatoire of his hometown Besançon all the way to the Conservatoire of Paris. It is in this institution that he decided to fully develop his activity as a pianist, under the influence of striking personalities such as Nicholas Angelich and Hortense Cartier-Bresson.
Finalist and winner of the “Modern Times” prize, rewarding the best performance of the new music piece at the Clara Haskil 2015 competition, he revealed himself during this event dedicated to the great Romanian pianist, herself a good violinist as well. That same year, he won the first prize at the Épinal international competition and became laureate of the “L’Or du Rhin” foundation, before winning the Thierry Scherz prize at the “Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad” the next year. In 2017, he was nominated at the Victoires de la Musique in the “instrumental soloist revelations” category. He is also an associate artist at the Singer-Polignac Foundation in Paris since 2018
He performed as a soloist with the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National d'Ile de France, the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, and the National Orchestra of Lorraine, under the baton of Jacques Mercier, Christian Zacharias, Pierre Dumoussaud, Marzena Diakun. Also deeply interested by chamber music, his mastery of a vast repertoire has made a much sought-after musical partner out of him. He plays regularly in numerous festivals, including the Festival international de piano de la Roque d'Anthéron, the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, the Piano aux Jacobins, the Festival de Pâques and L’Août Musical in Deauville, the Festival des Arcs, the Shanghai Concert Hall, the Bombay Royal Opera, the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, with artists such as Renaud Capuçon, Paul Meyer, Yan Levionnois, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Ismël Margain, Anne Göckel, Adrien Bellom, the Hermès, Girard, Hanson quartett.
His discography includes notably two albums dedicated to four-hands pieces by Schubert (rewarded by the prestigious “ffff” of French magazine Télérama) and Mozart, recorded with Ismaël Margain for Aparté, a cd with cellist Yan Levionnois (“ffff” of Télérama), released in 2017 for Fondamenta, and a solo cd around Schubert, Haydn, and Debussy, released in 2017 as well by Claves.
