Cordes funambules

For over 50 years, the guitar has been a part of Véronique Gillet’s life. She was just seven years old when she first encountered the instrument; it entered her life and has never left it. The music of Granados, De Falla and Albeniz was a constant presence throughout her childhood. After training in classical guitar with Philippe Lemaigre in Liège, she continued her studies in Paris with Alberto Ponce and began studying the cello in the Netherlands. Also passionate about early music, she sang at that time with the Collegium Vocale in Ghent, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe. Very quickly, Véronique Gillet began composing as a self-taught musician and in 1982 won the First Prize for Composition from the S.A.C.E.M. at the ‘Carrefour mondial de la guitare’ in Martinique – where she met E. Gismonti and Leo Brouwer. She continued her compositional work in Brazil with Egberto Gismonti and, through her many travels and encounters, drew on her sources of inspiration and developed a unique approach to the instrument. She has forged numerous musical collaborations off the beaten track, notably with the Tunisian oud player Moufadhel Adhoum and the duo “Cordes Vagabondes” with the Turkish singer and saz player Emre Gültekin. For over 35 years, Véronique Gillet has been a regular guest at international guitar festivals as a guitarist (solo, in duos, trios or quartets) performing her own compositions (concerts in Belgium, Spain, England, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Quebec, Algeria, Venezuela, Brazil, etc.) Most recently, she founded the duo “Cordes Funambules” with cellist and conductor Raphaël Feye... To date, she has recorded 12 albums of her own compositions, the latest of which is “Quatuors pour le monde d’hier” (released by Flak Records, Liège, in 2022), for string quartet and guitar quintet, written especially for the Prague Zemlinsky Quartet.

A cellist and conductor, Raphaël Feye is a graduate of the Royal Conservatories of Music in Brussels, the Hochschule für Musik in Leipzig and the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. He has studied under members of the Alban Berg, Artemis and Danel Quartets, Eberhard Feltz and the cellist Lluis Claret. He trained in conducting with Jean Sébastien Béreau and Jorma Panula and regularly attended the rehearsals of Roger Norrington, whose work particularly inspires him. He has had the opportunity to conduct, notably, the London Mozart Players, the Janáček Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège and the Octopus Koor. In the opera world, he has appeared as a guest conductor in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, The Abduction from the Seraglio and Don Giovanni. With the orchestra Les Métamorphoses, which he founded with Camille Feye, he has recorded two albums acclaimed by the international press: Lignes parallèles (Haydn, Lipatti and Mozart) with pianist Julien Libeer, and a second album dedicated to the music of Weinberg with cellist Pieter Wispelwey. His interest in Turkish and Armenian music has led him to perform with Emre Gültekin, Vardan Hovanissian and Tristan Driessens. Raphaël has recently taken part in several programmes and concert broadcasts for Klara and Musiq 3 radio stations.