Closing Night: a memorable cello recital in Alicante
The season of the Alicante Concert Society reaches its grand finale with a premiere of monumental dimension. The acclaimed cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, a French-Canadian virtuoso, will perform a recital that marks the end of the organization’s program for the year. The concert is scheduled for Monday, June 17, at 8:00 PM, in the Principal Theatre of Alicante. Queyras has prepared a compelling program that includes works by Saygun, Bach, and Kodály, offering audiences a rich tapestry of styles and eras.
Jean-Guihen Queyras, born in Montreal in 1967, has built a career defined by curiosity and breadth. He moved with his family to Algeria at age five and then to France a few years later. Readers of Diapason voted him Artist of the Year, and the Victoires de la Musique Classique named him Best Instrumental Soloist in 2008. His wide-ranging musical tastes are a hallmark of his artistry.
On stage and in recordings, Queyras gives himself to music with evident passion, approaching each work with humility and a clear, unadorned honesty that reveals the music’s essence. When three elements align—the inner motivation of the composer, the performer, and the audience—the result is a concert that resonates deeply. He absorbed this philosophy from Pierre Boulez, with whom he enjoyed a long collaboration. This approach accompanies every performance, paired with flawless technique and a resolute, lucid tone that invites the listener to listen closely and fully.
He engages with early music with the same intensity as contemporary repertoire, performing with ensembles such as Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Berlin Akademie for Ancient Music. Among the pieces he has premiered are works by Ivan Fedele, Gilbert Amy, Bruno Mantovani, Michael Jarrell, Johannes-Maria Staud, Thomas Larcher, and Tristan Murail. In November 2014, he performed Peter Eötvös’s cello concerto in a celebration of the composer’s 70th birthday.
Queyras is a cofounder of the Arcanto Quartet and forms a permanent trio with Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov. He also collaborates closely with pianists Alexandre Tharaud and Alexander Melnikov. In addition, he has developed a Mediterranean program with specialists Zarb Bijan and Keyvan Chemirani. This diversity has led many concert halls, festivals, and orchestras to invite him as an artist-in-residence, including venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Vredenburg in Utrecht, De Bijloke Gent, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg.
Queyras is a regular guest with leading orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Residentie Orchestra Den Haag, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, and the Tonhalle Zurich. He has collaborated with conductors including Iván Fischer, Philippe Herreweghe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, François-Xavier Roth, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and Sir Roger Norrington.
In addition to his concert schedule around the world, he teaches at the Freiburg University of Music and directs the Haute-Provence Rencontres Musicales festival in Forcalquier. He performs on a cello made by Pietro Guarneri in 1729, kindly provided by Canimex Inc. of Drummondville, Canada, which he plays with notable warmth and precision throughout his recitals and collaborations.