Juliette Herlin & Kevin Ahfat
Biographie Juliette Herlin & Kevin Ahfat
Juliette Herlin
Praised for her “impressive artistry” and “wonderful bowing technique” (San Francisco Classical Voice), French cellist Juliette Herlin has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. As a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, she has appeared in prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Musée du Louvre in Paris, as well as the Zhuhai and Chongqin Grand Theaters in China. Juliette is honored to have been named a Bärenreiter Jubilee Ambassador.
2022-23 season highlights include a New York Concerto debut in Merkin Hall, Aletheia Trio recitals presented by Oberlin Conservatory and Dame Myra Heiss Memorial Concerts, and the world premiere of Julia Adolphe’s duo “All in Starlight” in Zipper Hall at the Colburn School. Previous highlights included Juliette’s Canadian debut in Toronto with pianist Kevin Ahfat and the North American premiere of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Third Cello Sonata as part of a recital Music Academy of the West presented.
An avid chamber musician, Juliette has performed with artists such as Gérard Caussé, Martin Chalifour, Glenn Dicterow, Alex Kerr, Teng Li, Richie Hawley, Anthony Marwood, Roger Tapping, and Donald Weilerstein. She is the cellist of the Aletheia Piano Trio, alongside pianist Fei-Fei and violinist Francesca dePasquale. Formed in 2013 at the Juilliard School, the trio made its debut at the Rose Studio and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, and at the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. They have since performed across the U.S., made their Korean debut with the Beethoven Triple Concerto alongside the Gustav Mahler Orchestra, and toured China in 2018 and 2019, performing in Poly Theatres throughout the country.
Juliette has been invited to perform at renowned series and festivals, including the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, YellowBarn, Shenson Chamber Music Concerts, Shandelee Music Festival, Concerts in the Barn, Sundays Live at LACMA, the Chamber Music Society of Logan, Friends of Chamber Music Reading, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, the Festival International Violoncello León in Mexico, and the Festival Jeunes Talents in France. Her performances have been broadcast frequently on NPR’s Performance Today, WFMT, KUSC, and on France Musique, France’s leading classical music station.
Winner of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe String Competition, Juliette is also the recipient of first prizes at the International Vatelot/Rampal Music Competition and the UFAM Competition in Paris, as well as a Beverly Hills National Auditions winner. She has been invited to be guest principal of the Dallas Chamber Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra. Additionally, she has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, and Ensemble Intercontemporain.
As a dedicated advocate for contemporary music, Juliette has worked closely with prominent composers, such as Kaija Saariaho and Jörg Widmann, and premieres many new works and commissions. Eager to discover various repertoires and explore historically informed performances, Juliette has collaborated with jazz legend Wayne Shorter and bassist Esperanza Spalding as well as studied baroque cello with Bruno Cocset and Phoebe Carrai.
Juliette is Assistant Professor of Cello at TCU’s School of Music and the co-founder/director of the Texas Chamber Music Institute. Additionally, she has presented masterclasses at Oberlin Conservatory, University of Michigan, University of Oklahoma, University of Houston, Baylor University, and in China, Colombia, Mexico, and Denmark. In the summer, she is on faculty at the Round Top Festival and the International Cello Institute. Admitted at the age of sixteen to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP), Juliette obtained her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees studying with Jérôme Pernoo. She pursued her studies at the Juilliard School with Richard Aaron and received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California under the guidance of Ralph Kirshbaum.
Kevin Ahfat
is acclaimed to be “poised to become one of the young heirs of the classical piano realm, with a bold, boundary-pushing, millennial style matched by refined execution” (Vanguard Seattle). Possessing “a balanced mix of expressiveness and virtuosity” (Musical America), he “summons plenty of thunderpower in the big moments, but clearly values musicianship over mere showmanship” (American Record Guide).
Ahfat continues performances and recordings as the newest core member of the three-time Grammy-nominated ARC Ensemble, one of Canada’s preeminent chamber ensembles and foremost cultural forces. Their latest releases on Chandos Records have been nominated for a 2022 Juno Award, 2022 OPUS Klassik Award, as well as being named one of the “Top 10 classical musical albums of 2020” by The Boston Globe and one of WQXR’s “Best Classical Albums of 2020”.
Kevin was named one of CBC Music’s 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30 in 2018 and subsequently released a live recording of Brahms from CBC’s Studio 211. Highlights of recent seasons include engagements as soloist throughout North America and abroad, including at Koerner Hall in Toronto, Maison symphonique in Montreal, Meridian Arts Centre and Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Merkin Hall in New York, and with the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra in Los Angeles. Further highlights include a performance of Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s Postludium with the Esprit Orchestra, a return to the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall for its first-ever Shostakovich Concerto Festival, as well as a partnership with Richard Alston & Juilliard Dance in their recreation of Alston’s Sheer Bravado (2006) in New York.
Kevin has had the privilege of sharing the stage with renowned artists across many genres, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Stefan Jackiw, SO Percussion, David Finckel, Sonia Rodriguez, and Jera Wolfe. Festival appearances include the, Music@Menlo, Rockport, & Montreal Chamber Music, and Fall for Dance North, Zhuhai, & Kyoto International Festivals. He has been broadcast locally and abroad several times on CBC Music’s In Concert program and WFMT’s Dame Myra Hess Series, and contributed his playing to Yamaha Canada’s recent Dear Glenn AI Project.
In early 2018, he was thrilled to give the North American Premiere of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Third Sonata for Cello and Piano (1919), recently published by Bärenreiter-Verlag, with a longtime artistic collaborator, cellist Juliette Herlin. Last season, they gave the Sonata its Midwest Premiere on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago; the Canadian Premiere in Toronto later that year. In anticipation of this premiere, Kevin filmed & produced a mini-documentary titled Soirée pour Camille, a short film documenting the historical context of the work, the artistic partnership of Kevin & Juliette, and their joint exploration of French music.
Continuing his dynamic exploration of music in-tandem with film, he recently partnered with Riddle Films to release a cinematic performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition filmed live at Toronto’s Koerner Hall. A cinematic dance film by Toronto-based film director Vikram Dasgupta is slated for release in 2024 in partnership with Fall For Dance North.
Kevin recently worked with Juilliard Global Ventures as part of the Juilliard Open Classroom team where he helped to develop new digital learning environments to reach musicians across the globe. In this capacity, he offered his skills as a teacher, curriculum writer, and course builder to a number of online courses, including Juilliard Open Classroom’s first release: Sharpen Your Piano Artistry. He was a curriculum writer for Piano Preludes: Bach, Chopin, and Debussy, offered through the online education platform edX. Keen on developing the artistry of young musicians, he has presented masterclasses at Moravian College, Olympic College, the College of Southern Idaho, and the University of Las Vegas.
A two-time winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition, Kevin completed principal studies at the Juilliard School in New York under the tutelage of Joseph Kalichstein and Stephen Hough, and was in-residence as a Rebanks Fellow at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. He is a grateful recipient of a Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award and was a NFMC Artist Award recipient.
Kevin is Artistic Director of OPUS Chamber Music, Toronto’s newest premier hub for chamber music connecting audiences with dynamic and compelling artists who aim to excite, connect, and inspire.
