Frédéric Cellier
Alongside his university studies (DEA in musicology devoted to Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in B flat, University of Paris IV-Sorbonne), Frédéric Cellier won three first prizes and an advanced studies prize at the Conservatoire National de Région de Nice, then won first prize in the International Music Performance Competition – soloist category – in Stresa (Italy).
He is a laureate of the Fondation de France and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation.
Frédéric Cellier collaborates with numerous composers, including Jean Françaix, who, having heard him play his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, noticed him and noted "a smooth sound and a style combining French virtuosity with German musicality. Shortly afterwards, he dedicated one of his last compositions to him, a work for clarinet and strings inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.
A clarinetist with an eclectic repertoire, Frédéric Cellier moves effortlessly from one style to another, with a particular fondness for the Roaring Twenties. He is equally at home performing Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano alongside Jean-Michel Damase, Jean Françaix, and Gabriel Tacchino, as well as his own arrangements for clarinet and harp of Erik Satie's Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes with the great French harpist Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche, and for clarinet, piano, and string orchestra of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for Wynton Marsalis or under the direction of Adrian Gershwin, the composer's grandson.
He gives lectures/concerts or master classes on Jean Cocteau (Avec les Musiciens, Salon du Livre, Nice, June 1997), Jean Françaix (Maison des Conservatoires, Paris, February 1997 – Fondation Polignac, Paris, November 1999), Erik Satie (Esoterik Satie, Festival d'Avignon, July 2002 – Bibliothèque Nationale de France, October 2017), George Gershwin (Rhapsody in Blue, musical kaleidoscope of America, Henri Selmer Paris – Vandoren, Paris, April 2015) and Francis Poulenc (Musée Henri Matisse, Nice, May 1997 – Journée Francis Poulenc, Bagnols-en-Forêt, July 2007 – Silpakorn University, Bangkok, February 2016 and 2025 – Academy of Music, Malmö, April 2025).
A certified teacher at the National Conservatories of Nice, Marseille, and Avignon, Frédéric Cellier is also the author of numerous pieces of light music and a considerable number of arrangements of all styles and for all instruments, acclaimed by many personalities in the world of music, including Michèle Auric, Jean Françaix, Adrian Gershwin, Wynton Marsalis, Yehudi Menuhin, Madeleine Milhaud, Manuel Rosenthal, Gabriel Tacchino, and Ornella Volta.
These thousands of scores form the basis of the music publishing company he founded: STRADIVARIUS Editions.
Clarinet scores, sheet music + free downloads | STRADIVARIUS Editions
