Born in Bordeaux in 1983 into a family with a passion for music, Deborah Nemtanu chose the violin at the age of four. Her career has been characterised by precocious success and diverse talent.
After being awarded first prize at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2001, she went on to win numerous international distinctions: the Académie Maurice Ravel prize in 2001, fourth prize and special prizes at the Jacques Thibaud competition in 2002, participation in the Perlman Program (USA) in 2007, second prize at the Benjamin Britten Competition in London in 2008, crowned by a concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2005, she was appointed concertmaster of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, a position of great responsibility that she still holds today. In this capacity, she regularly appears as soloist at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, notably in Saint-Saëns's Concerto No 3, Lalo's Symphonie espagnole, Brahms's concerto and the Bach concertos, establishing relationships of deep trust with conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Louis Langrée, Juraj Valčuha, Daniel Harding and Sir Roger Norrington.
Curious and passionate, Deborah Nemtanu has gradually widened her field of action: by offering programmes in which she skilfully switches from violin to viola; and by conducting the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris herself, in collusion with the orchestra's musicians, in a true chamber music spirit.
She has conducted symphonies by Mozart and Beethoven at the Hôtel Sully in Paris (broadcast by France 3) and at the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. As a soloist, she has performed at the Enescu Festival and the Augsburg Festival under Sir Roger Norrington. She also performed at the Folles journées in Nantes and Tokyo, the Salzburg Festival, the Montpellier Festival, the Colmar Festival at the Musée d'Orsay and the Midis-Minimes Festival in Brussels.
On tour, Deborah Nemtanu has made many fruitful musical encounters, notably with Bertrand Chamayou, Victor Julien Laferrière, Vilde Frang, Tanja and Kristina Tetzlaff, Stephen Kovacevich, Romain Descharmes, Jean-Frederic Neuburger, Adam Laloum, François Leleux, Emmanuel Pahud, Fazil Say, Daniel Hope, not to mention her sister Sarah Nemtanu, also a violinist and lifelong partner.
Acclaimed by the press, her first CD, devoted to Saint Saëns and Fauré, came out in 2013, with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris conducted by Thomas Zehetmair (Mirare). In December 2014, she teamed up with her sister Sarah to record the Bach and Schnittke violin concertos (Naive), followed by the complete Bartók Duos in 2016, this time for Decca. 2017 saw the release of the disc 'Eh bien dansez maintenant' (Lalo and Ravel) with La Symphonie de Poche, his privileged accomplices and partners. Finally, 2018 sees the release of a CD (Label Pentatone) devoted to the double concerto for violin and piano, with the wonderful collaboration of Sarah Nemtanu and the Kodama sisters.
Deborah Nemtanu was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in February 2016.
She plays a violin by Domenico Montagnana (1740), generously loaned by Monceau Investissements Mobiliers, a company in the Monceau Assurances group.
October 2023
