Born in an illustrious family of musicians, Régis Pasquier is rocked by music from his early years on. This complicity proves from the start to be highly fruitful, as he wins his First Prizes in violin and chamber music at the age of 12, before flying to the United States two years later.

 

This journey will be decisive: there he meets Isaac Stern, David Oïstrakh, Pierre Fournier and Nadia Boulanger. Seduced by his playing, Zino Francescatti invites him to join him within the prestigious American concerts agency Columbia Artists Management Inc.: Régis Pasquier is soon demanded as a soloist by all great North-American orchestras, in particular by the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell, then regarded as the best orchestra worldwide, as well as the Pittsburgh Orchestra.A few years later, Zino Francescatti invites Régis Pasquier to record at his side for Deutsche Grammophon, Bach’s “Concerto for two violins” BWV 1043.

 

 

His reputation spreads largely beyond the United States and “his frank and wide tone, his thorough care of phrasing, his outstanding technical ease, his perfect sound accuracy “ (Le Figaro) are soon distinguished by the most famous orchestras, who invite him to France as well as to Japan, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic.

 

Régis Pasquier performs under the most prestigious conductors: in the first place under Lorin Maazel, with whom he tours in the US, but also under Georges Prêtre, Leonard Bernstein, Alain Lombard, Michel Plasson, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Jean Fournet, Marc Soustrot, Rudolf Baumgartner, George Szell, Matthias Bamert, Edo de Waart, Michael Tilson Thomas, Charles Dutoit, Tamas Vasary, Yoël Levi, Seiji Ozawa, Louis Langrée, Neeme Järvi, Eugen Jochum, Emmanuel Krivine. Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Menahem Pressler, Leonard Rose, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Murray Perahia, Paul Tortelier count among his widely renowned chamber music partners.

 

Far from being high on his success, concerned with ensuring transmission of his knowledge as well as the education of young generations, Régis Pasquier teaches violin at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique from 1985 to 2011. Since 1998 Régis Pasquier has been playing a beautiful violin by Joseph Guarnerius (Del Gesu) Cremona 1734. 

 

Following her studies in two of the most famous institutions of advanced musical study, namely the Toho Gakuen school in Tokyo, and the French National Conservatoire (CNSM) in Paris, Yoko Kaneko is now recognised as an accomplished virtuoso both as a pianist and as a player of the fortepiano. She is considered as one of the most sensitive artists of her generation and has appeared throughout her career with the most distinguished musicians of international reputation in places as diverse as Luzern, Bilbao, Brussels, Brugge, Berlin, Warsaw, Taipei, Seoul or Tokyo.

 

Her determination to discover the quintessence of each work and thus obtain a truly valid interpretation, taking account of the specific style of each composer, has led her to study with several great masters of music. Her teachers have included Germaine Mounier, Michel Béroff and Yvonne Loriot-Messiaen for the piano, and Jean Mouillère, Menahem Pressler, Jean Hubeau and György Kurtag for chamber music. Her encounters with two of her predecessors, Masahiro Arita and Jos van Immerseel, both experts on authentic performance styles, have greatly influenced her musical development.

 

Schubert: Sonatina No.3 for violin and piano in G minor, D. 408

Schubert: Violin sonata in A major, D. 574

Schubert: Rondo for violin and piano in B minor, D.895

 

Schubert: Sonatina No.2 for violin and piano in A minor, D. 385

Schubert: Sonatina No.1 for violin and piano in D major, D. 384

Schubert: Fantasie for violin and piano in C major, D. 934