Violinist Philippe Graffin has established an indisputable reputation for his interpretations of the French repertoire, natural perhaps for one of the few pupils of Josef Gingold, himself a pupil of Ysaye for whom most of the violin repertoire of this era was written.
As concerto soloist, he has performed with orchestras such as The Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken the Residentie Orkest, Gothenburg Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra di Padova et del Veneto and St Petersburg Philharmonic.
Graffin performs works of many living composers such as Dutilleux and Saariaho and has had works written for him by Rodion Shchedrin, Vytautas Barkaukas, David Matthews, Philippe Hersant and Yves Prin. Following a performance of his Concerto Cantabile with Rostropovich conducting, Shchedrin wrote Concerto Parlando for Graffin which is now awaiting release on CD.
Philippe is a highly sought after chamber musician and is founder and artistic director of the “Consonances” chamber music festival of St Nazaire, France which in 2012 marked the 150th anniversary of Debussy. Recent highlights include concerts with the Georges Eneso Philharmonic in Bucharest and a recital in Venice at the Palazzetto Bru-Zane, televised by Mezzo as well as recitals in the summer at many French festivals including the Festival d’Orangerie de Sceaux. Graffin also featured on a BBC 4 documentary on Delius, performing Delius’s ‘Legende’ for violin and piano.