Classique
Valentine Michaud
Valentine Michaud is a saxophonist who was born in France in 1993 and has lived in Switzerland since 2010. Her repertoire encompasses a wide range of styles, including contemporary works, baroque and classical transcriptions, and improvisation, all of which she performs with passion. Aiming to bring her instrument to a wider audience, promoting its largely unknown repertoire, and helping to create new works in innovative formats are some of her key values as an artist, along with enthusiasm and curiosity for exploring different horizons.
Valentine has been awarded numerous prizes at international competitions. In 2016, she won first prize at the Jurjans Andrejs VI Woodwind International Competition in Riga (Latvia) and the Prix Credit Suisse at Lucerne Festival, while her duo Akmi with pianist Akvilé Sileikaité received the Swiss Ambassador Award 2019, as well as the first prize at the renowned Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition 2016 and as 2nd Prize at the Salieri-Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition (Verona) in 2018. Since 2015, she has been supported by prestigious Swiss grants such as the Leenaards foundation cultural grant and Migros’ Pour-Cent Culturel, which saw her added to their concert management programme in 2016.
A passionate believer in the richness of collaborations between different artistic forms, Valentine is one of the founding members of WAITING FOR AMON, a trilogy of multidisciplinary performances. GLITCH, the first show, is a spectacle performed by a painter, two dancers, two saxophonists and live electronic effects, premiered at the Theater der Künste in Zurich in 2016. In 2017 followed CAIRNS, for one performer and saxophone quartet. SHOUT, the last part of the trilogy, for saxophone solo and performer, iwas premiered in march 2018 in Zürich. The triptych was awarded by the Nico Kaufmann Foundation (Zürich) in 2018.
Willing to renew the repertoire of her instrument, Valentine collaborates with composers of her generation and premier their works in new music festivals such as Impuls in Graz (Austria) or Zürich Internation SaxFest. Member of the Ever Present Orchestra, she currently works with the american composer Alvin Lucier.
She performs regularly as a soloist, in chamber music groups and in orchestras on some of the most prestigious stages in the world: KKL Luzern, Switzerland; Wigmore Hall, London; Grand Philarmonic Hall, St Petersburg; Issue Project Room, New York; Great Guild Hall, Riga; Gnessin Academy, Moscow; Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna; Philharmonie Hall, Odessa; Esplanade, Singapore; Tonhalle, Zurich; Victoria Hall, Geneva … In 2016, she had the opportunity to perform with the Mariinsky Orchestra directed by Valery Gergiev and the Orchestre des Continents under Thierry Fischer. She is invited as a soloist by orchestras such as the State Cappella Symphony Orchestra, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, l’Ensemble Symphonique de Neuchâtel, le Junge Zürcher Harmoniker or la Philarmonie de Hradec Kralové.
