Trio Talweg

A curious and insatiable artist, as well as a passionate and multi-faceted musician, Sébastien Surel is an instigator of cultural connections: he attaches great importance to the creation of links between different music and cultures.

His luminous and spirited playing, expressed through a broad repertoire, is unanimously applauded by peers and critics alike.

Born in 1975 into a family of musicians, he was accepted at the age of 15 to the Paris Conservatoire (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris), where he studied with Sylvie Gazeau and Christian Ivaldi. After obtaining two diplomas from the Conservatoire, he continued his studies with Shlomo Mintz, Pavel Vernikov, Georgy Sebök, Eugène Istomin and the Ysayë Quartet.  At the same time, he studied harmony, orchestration and composition, and developed his sense of improvisation while exploring jazz and world music.

Before devoting himself entirely to solo and chamber music, he acquired valuable orchestral experience, as concertmaster of various groups and then as a permanent member of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France from 2000 to 2003.

In 2004, he founded the Talweg trio which was to be a turning point in his musical life. Supported by Martha Argerich, the group was invited to many festivals in Europe and in Asia and their recordings have been covered with praise by the specialized press.

A diverse array of projects have marked his career, from the Parisian musical association 'La Chambre d'Amis' which he co-founded and of which he was musical director for seven years, to collaboration with artists such as Roland Pidoux, Henri Demarquette, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Claire Désert, Michel Moraguès, the Wanderer trio, the Ébène Quartet or Paul Radais and Aurélien Sabouret, with whom he has just released a disc of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations arranged for string trio.

His vast repertoire includes chamber music as well as solo music, such as the complete Mozart concertos, the concertos of Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Tchaïkovski, Sibelius, Barber and the Chausson Poème.

A musical chameleon, he performs with equal aplomb with an extremely diverse range of musicians, such as Juanjo Mosalini, Tomás Gubitch, Jean-Philippe Viret, Vincent Segal, David Linx or Richard Galliano, with whom he has already given more than 500 concerts throughout the world, either as a guest artist or as a creator of new ensembles.

His discography currently runs to 15 releases.

Sébastien Surel has been invited to perform on the world's most prestigious stages, including the Barbican Centre (London), the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the Théâtre de la Ville, the Salle Pleyel and the Théâtre du Châtelet (all four in Paris), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Santa Cecilia (Rome), the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), the Dresden Opera, the Kioi Hall, Suntory Hall and Metropolitan Art Center (Tokyo), the Moscow Conservatory great hall, the Kirchner Cultural Centrum (Buenos Aires) as well as at jazz festivals such as Montreux, Vienne, Montreal, Marciac and Nice.

Sébastien Surel has a strong commitment to education and particularly to teaching the violin and chamber music. He obtained the Certificat d'Aptitude, the highest French distinction for musical pedagogy, in 2011.

His violin was made by Giuseppe Guadagnini in 1788.

August 2017