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The French violinist, David Grimal, began playing the violin at the age of five. He won the First Prize in violin and chamber music at the Paris Conservatory in 1993. Afterwards he did his postgraduate studies with Régis Pasquier at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, he participated in several master-classes most notably those of Isaac Stern and Schlomo Mintz. His fortuitous meeting with Philippe Hirschorn, the man who was to become his mentor, was decisive both musically and in that it opened the doors to an international career. More recently, he won the European Community Prize -1996, the European Radio Union Prize -1996, and received the “Credit National" Fellowship Award. He was also honored as the Classical discovery of the MIDEM 1997.
David Grimal has performed the main European cities and around the world (Asia, Australia, the Americas and Africa). He has performed as a soloist and in chamber ensembles in Switzerland, Japan, Korea, Hong-Kong, Taiwan, New York (Lincoln Center), Vienna (Musikverein), as well as on the main stages in Paris (Theatre du Chatelet, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Auditorium du Louvre, Radio-France ...) and in such festivals as Ravinia, The Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Menton, Festival de Musique en mer, Radio-France Montpellier, Prades, Risor, Stavanger, Schwäbische Frühling, Colmar, Menton, les Folles Journées… He has given radio and television performances on various European channels.
As a well-acclaimed soloist, David Grimal has been invited to perform with numerous great orchestras including: the Orchestre de Paris (Christoph Eschenbach, M. Plasson), Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, R. Frübeck de Burgos), Orchestre National de Lyon, Opéra de Lyon (E. Krivine), Capitole de Toulouse (Jap van Sweden), Mozarteum de Salzbourg (H. Soudan), Berliner Philharmoniker (S. Sloane), Florida Philharmonic (Matthias Bamert), English Chamber Orchestra (James Judd), Budapest, Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra, Basel (Heinrich Schiff), Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon (Lawrence Foster) Sinfonia Varsovia (M. Schonwandt, P. Csaba) Ulster Orchestra, Dublin, Taipei, Moscow Virtuosi, Stockholm Chamber Orchestra, Warsaw Symphony, Bavarian Chamber Orchestra, I Musici di Padova, Montpellier Philharmonic, Cannes Symphony, Avignon Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris…
David Grimal has given chamber music performances with Youri Bashmet, Boris Berezovsky, Gerard Causse, James Galway, Christoph Henkel, Paul Meyer, Karoly Moscari, Pascal Moragues, Raphael Oleg, Regis and Bruno Pasquier, Jean-Claude Penne Tier, Xavier Phillips, Roland Pidoux, Alain Planes, Emmanuel Strosser, and many others.
As a committed artist, David Grimal has founded Les Dissonances in 2004. It is a musicians' collective gathering soloists as well as chamber musicians or solos from great orchestras from all over Europe. They meet and share their passion and artistic ideal, setting up three different programmes per season.Their first disc, Verklärte Nacht by Arnold Schoenberg, Strauss Metamorphosen issued in 2007, an Ambroisie-Naïve production, earned them the triple acclaim of telerama(ffff), the BBC (BBC choice) and Arte Channel selection. Les Dissonances have already performed in prestigious seasons and have started performing in Europe.
In addition, David Grimal has enjoyed a rewarding collaboration with Georges Pludermacher in recitals over the past decade. They perform together all over the world. Their last disc "Reflection" issued in 2006 devoted to Debussy, Béla Bartók, Ravel has received large press acclaim (ffff telerama, 10 de répertoire recommandé Classica, ARTE sélection…). A new disc entitled Europa (George Enescu, B. Bartók, Janacek and Szymanovski) as well as the Sonatas and Partitas by J.S. Bach (BWV 1001-1006) for Naïve were released in 2009. Since Grimal is particularly fond of the quartet for its musical perfection, he has founded the Orfeo Quartet. They are preparing to record the complete L.v. Beethoven quartets.
David Grimal has recorded Schubert's complete sonatas with Valery Afanassiev and a disc dedicated to Dohnanyi chamber music for AEON along with Marc Coppey, Gérard Caussé and Michel Béroff (which earned them 10 in the magazine Repertoire). Franck and Srauss violin sonatas with Georges Pludermacher (Harmonia Mundi ). With his live recording of J.S. Bach's complete Sonatas and Partitas (BWV 1001-1006) for Transart he won the prestigious "strad selection"award. A film was produced by H White for Mezzo about seven pieces for solo violin written for him (Thierry Escaich, Zygel, Pauset, Tanada, Zur, Gasparov, Kissine). He is shortly to give the first time performance of a concerto written for him by Thierry Escaich with Orchestre National de Lyon as well as the first perfomance of a concerto by Brice Pauset with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Six new works for solo violin will be written for him by composers such as Hilborg, Connesson, Hersant, Fedele, Verrieres, Dalbavie.
David Grimal is regularly invited to give master-classes in Australia, Taiwan, as well as in many festivals like Pablo Casals in Prades and Les Arcs international music academy in France and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.
David Grimal plays the Ex Roederer, Stradivarius (1710) lent by Fazenda Ipiranga, Mguaranesia / MG, Brasil. He was awarded the European Culture Prize at Wiener Musikverein in 1996. France made him Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 2008. |
