Romain Leleu & Julien Gernay
Biography Romain Leleu & Julien Gernay
Romain Leleu
studied classical trumpet at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMD), where he won first prizes in trumpet and in chamber music performance before continuing his training with Reinhold Friedrich at the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule. Since then, he has enjoyed a brilliant career as soloist, navigating between the Baroque repertoire and new music, without neglecting his work as arranger that in 2010 led him to create the Ensemble Convergences. Renamed the Romain Leleu Sextet, the exquisite combination of trumpet and string quintet allows him to revisit the great masterpieces of classical and non-classical music. In the summer of 2020, he and his sibling, the tuba player Thomas Leleu, founded the Duo Leleu Brothers.
Praised for his radiant tone and assured technique, Romain Leleu gave his first concert at the age of 14 and in quick succession was named the ADAMI “Classical music revelation”, winner of the Group Banque Populaire Foundation, of the SAFRAN Foundation for Music, and of the Prize of the Del Duca Foundation of the French Academy of Fine Arts. He was chosen for the “Instrumental Soloist Revelation” of the year award at the 2009 Victoires de la Musique Classique and named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
He performs as soloist on all five continents, both in recital and alongside the greatest orchestras at such venues as the Royal Albert Hall, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Luxembourg Philharmonie, and the Seoul Arts Center. As a chamber musician, his open-mindedness and spirit of dialogue have found grateful partners in Thierry Escaich, Adam Laloum, Ibrahim Maalouf, and Frank Braley. He is also an editor of trumpet collection scores at the Éditions Gérard Billaudot, Paris, and already has several recordings to his credit. Alongside Face à Face, the present album marks the start of his partnership with harmonia mundi.
Julien Gernay
A multifaceted musician, with a warm and communicative temperament, the pianist Julien Gernay is a remarkable artist with an exceptional career.
Born in Belgium in Namur, he trained at the Conservatoire de Nice, where he was awarded first class degrees in two instruments, the piano and the violin. He continued his piano studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique in Paris under Michel Béroff, Christian Ivaldi, Jean-Claude Pennetier and Daria Horova. He also benefitted from the coaching of Dmitri Bashkiria, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Menahem Presslaret and Janos Starker whilst attending festivals.
A semi-finalist in the International Reine Elisabeth Competition in 2007, laureate at the International Piano Festival in Lisbon 2003, Tarazzi Prize and Drouet-Bourgeois Prize from the Fondation de France 2001, Julien Gernay is also a laureate of the Banque Populaire Foundation and of the Singer-Polignac Foundation. His numerous performances, acclaimed by the press and audiences have permitted him to perform in prestigious concert halls throughout the world; amongst his french references are the festivals of Vezère, Menton, l’Empéri, the Périgord Noir, Printemps de la Grange in Evian, l’Orchestre-Opéra in Montpellier, the Wissembourg festival and Les Musicales du Golfe.
His repertoire as a soloist, eclectic and specialised, of which the interpretation is always authentic and profound, is equalled by his chamber music repertoire: his particular affinity with the latter, combined with his experience as a double instrumentalist, make Julien an accomplished chamber musician and a much sought-after partner. Julien Gernay plays regularly with Romain Leleu in a piano/trumpet duo and also in a piano/cello duo which he created in 2009 after meeting the cellist Dai Migata, a favourite of japanese audiences, and with whom he plays regularly in the most important concert halls in Japan. Julien Gernay has also played with international soloists such as Nemanja Radulovic, Rolland Pidoux, Maja Bogdanovic, Pierre Fouchenneret, the Modigliani, Voce, Zemlinksy, Symanowski and Ébène quartets and also the great organist Olivier Latry.
Amongst the recordings he has made are Edvard Grieg’s sonatas with the violinist David Galoustov released by Lyrinx. The Magellan trio, initiated by Julien Gernay with Pierre Fouchenneret, violin and Antoine Pierlot, cello, has recorded two CDs for the label Explora, consecrated respectively to the Mendelssohn trios and to the world of the British composer Roger Steptoe, with Olivier Latry. For their first recording as a duo, “Rencontre”, released by Universal Music at the end of 2015, Julien Gernay and the cellist Dai Miyata recorded diverse french and japanese works, reflecting their decisive musical encounter and celebrating their friendship. The release in September 2017 of their new recording, dedicated this time to concert pieces for cello and piano by Fauré, Saint Saëns, Piazzolla, Glazounov and Bruch, was for Julien Gernay and Dai Miyata an opportunity to undertake another tour of Japan.
