Jean-Christophe Spinosi |

Jean-Christophe Spinosi

Some consider him the “enfant terrible” of academic music. Others – a true musician- “choreographer”, endowed with a unique sense of rhythm and rare emotionality.

French violinist and conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi was born in 1964 in Corsica. Since childhood, learning to play the violin, he showed a passionate interest in many other types of musical activity: he professionally studied conducting, was fond of chamber and ensemble music making. He sought to comprehend the differences in music of different eras and styles, moving from modern to authentic instruments and vice versa.

In 1991, Spinosi founded the Matheus Quartet (named after his eldest son Mathieu), which soon won the Van Wassenaar International Authentic Ensemble Competition in Amsterdam. A few years later, in 1996, the quartet was transformed into a chamber ensemble. The first concert of Ensemble Matheus took place in Brest, at Le Quartz Palace.

Spinozi is rightly called one of the leaders of the middle generation of masters of historical performance, a brilliant connoisseur and interpreter of the instrumental and vocal music of the Baroque, mainly Vivaldi.

In the last decade, Spinosi has significantly expanded and enriched his repertoire, successfully conducting operas by Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Rossini, Bizet in the theaters of Paris (Theater on the Champs-Elysées, Theater Chatelet, Paris Opera), Vienna (An der Wien, State Opera), cities of France, Germany, other European countries. The ensemble’s repertoire included works by D. Shostakovich, J. Kram, A. Pyart.

“When working on a composition of any era, I try to understand and feel it, use the right instruments, delve into the score and into the text: all this in order to create a modern interpretation for the current listener, to let him feel the pulse of the present, not the past. And therefore my repertoire is from Monteverdi to the present day, ”says the musician.

As a soloist and with Ensemble Matheus, he performed at the main concert venues in France (in particular, at festivals in Toulouse, Ambronay, Lyon), at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Dortmund Konzerthaus, the Palace of Fine Arts in Brussels, Carnegie Hall in New York, Asher- hall in Edinburgh, Sour Cream Hall in Prague, as well as in Madrid, Turin, Parma, Naples.

Jean-Christophe Spinosi’s partners on stage and in the recording studios are outstanding performers, his like-minded people who also strive to breathe new life and passion into classical music: Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Natalie Dessay, Veronica Kangemi, Sarah Mingardo, Jennifer Larmor, Sandrine Piot, Simone Kermes, Natalie Stutzman, Mariana Mijanovic, Lorenzo Regazzo, Matthias Gerne.

The collaboration with Philippe Jaroussky (including the double “golden album” “Heroes” with arias from Vivaldi’s operas, 2008), Malena Ernman (with her in 2014 the album Miroirs with compositions by Bach, Shostakovich, Barber and contemporary French composer Nicolas Bacri).

With Cecilia, Bartoli Spinosi and Ensemble Matheus performed a series of joint concerts in Europe in June 2011, and three seasons later staged productions of Rossini’s operas Otello in Paris, The Italian in Algiers in Dortmund, Cinderella and Otello at Salzburg Festival.

The conductor constantly collaborates with such well-known ensembles as the German Symphony Orchestra of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestras of the Berlin Radio and Radio Frankfurt, the Hanover Philharmonic Orchestra,

Orchester de Paris, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Toulouse Capitol, Vienna Staatsoper, Castile and León (Spain), Mozarteum (Salzburg), Vienna Symphony, Spanish National Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Birmingham Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra.

Spinozi also worked with the most creative artists of our time. Among them are Pierrick Soren (Rossini’s Touchstone, 2007, Chatelet Theatre), Oleg Kulik (Monteverdi’s Vespers, 2009, Chatelet Theatre), Klaus Gut (Handel’s Messiah, 2009, Theater an der Wien). Jean-Christophe enlisted French-Algerian director and choreographer Kamel Ouali to stage Haydn’s Roland Paladin at the Châtelet Theatre. This production, like all previous ones, received rave reviews from the public and critics.

In the 2000s, Spinosi’s research in the field of early music culminated in the first-ever recordings of a number of Vivaldi’s works. Among them are the operas Truth in Test (2003), Roland Furious (2004), Griselda (2006) and The Faithful Nymph (2007), recorded on the Naïve label. Also in the discography of the maestro and his ensemble – Rossini’s Touchstone (2007, DVD); vocal and instrumental compositions by Vivaldi and others.

For his recordings, the musician has received numerous awards: BBC Music Magazine Award (2006), Académie du disque lyrique (“Best Opera Conductor 2007”), Diapason d’Or, Choc de l’année du Monde de la Musique, Grand Prix de l ‘Académie Charles Cros, Victoire de la Musique Classique, Premio internazionale del disco Antonio Vivaldi (Venice), Prix Caecilia (Belgium).

Jean-Christophe Spinozi and Ensemble Matheus have repeatedly performed in Russia. In particular, in May 2009 in St. Petersburg, at the Mikhailovsky Theater, as part of the cultural program of the Year of France in Russia, and in September 2014 – on the stage of the Concert Hall. P.I. Tchaikovsky in Moscow.

Jean-Christophe Spinosi is a Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters (2006).

The musician permanently resides in the French city of Brest (Brittany).