- Bassoon
Laurent Lefèvre, principal bassoon of the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Paris and German bassoon Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) is considered as the best bassoonist of his generation.
He began his studies at the age of 9 in his hometown of Charleville-Mézières before joining the CNSMDP five years later and perfecting his skills with Maurice Allard and Gilbert Audin.
He achieved international recognition by winning the first prizes in the Toulon Competition (1988), the IDRS (1989) and the prestigious Geneva Music Performance Competition (1995), the second prize (year without first prize) of the ARD of Munich (1993) and the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo Competition with the Debussy Quintet, the first prize at the Paris International Chamber Music Competition with the wind octet Paris-Bastille.
Laurent Lefèvre performs as a soloist and gives master classes all over the world. He also performs in the most prestigious concert halls (Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Musikverein, Royal Albert Hall in London with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Paris Philharmonic, Bunkamurahall with the Paris Opera, and Kultur und Kongresszentrum Luzern (KKL) with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra).
A member of the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Paris since 1991 and of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra since 2007, he has performed under the direction of the greatest conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Myung-Whun Chung, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Daniele Gatti, Andris Nelsons and Bernard Haitink.
He is particularly active as a chamber musician with the Claude Debussy Wind Quintet and the Paris-Bastille Wind Ensemble, with whom he recorded Mozart's Serenades, Beethoven's Octet, the six bagatelles and Ligeti's ten pieces (Harmonia Mundi), the complete chamber music of Francis Poulenc with pianist Alexandre Thauraud (Naxos), the three bassoon and string quartets of François Devienne (Harmonia Mundi), the duet-concertino for bassoon, clarinet, string orchestra and harp of Richard Strauss (Quantum), the Serenades of Richard Strauss with oboist François Leleux (Sony).