(Le Monde).
‘His recordings of Ysaÿe and Bartok have made it clear: Laurent Korcia is a violinist out of the ordinary. One of those whose sacred fire and instinct seize you from the very first bars. Following in the footsteps of those virtuosos from the turn of the century, the Elmans, Heifetzs, Ysaÿes and Kubeliks, whose style, sound and vibrato were a veritable signature, Korcia is one of those players you can identify with certainty. In this, he stands out from all his contemporaries’.
(Diapason)
Mentored from an early age by Pierre Barbizet and trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris by Michèle Auclair, herself a disciple of Jacques Thibaud and George Enesco, Laurent Korcia is one of the most acclaimed violinists of his generation.
Soloist of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique awards, Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, he was awarded the SACEM’s Georges Enesco prize and the Grand Prix de l’Académie du disque Charles Cros.
Laurent Korcia has been invited to perform as soloist under the direction of the greatest conductors – Yuri Ahronovitch, Semyon Bychkov, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Stéphane Denève, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Valéry Gergiev, Emmanuel Krivine, Louis Langrée, Kurt Masur, John Nelson, Kazushi Ono, Sakari Oramo, Michel Plasson, Manuel Rosenthal, Yutaka Sado, Tugan Sokhiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, Heinz Wallberg, Walter Weller…
He is one of the rare violinists to give solo violin recitals with programmes ranging from Bach to contemporary composers, as well as the complete Ysaÿe Sonatas, to which he has devoted his first CD. He has been invited to many festivals, including Verbier, Hong Kong, Roma Europa, St Petersburg, Perth and Wellington.
From his recording of the Ysaye Sonatas to Bartok (Concerto No. 2 with the CBSO and Sakari Oramo, sonata for solo violin, Contrastes, sonata No. 1), recognised as benchmark recordings, Laurent Korcia has also made discs that have met with a wide audience (Danses, Doubles Jeux with Michel Portal, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Tatjana Vassilieva, Michael Wendeberg… as well as Bruno Coulais’s Stabat Mater with Guillaume Depardieu). He has also recorded concertos by Korngold, Tchaikovsky and Paganini (Gramophone editor’s choice, BBC magazine concerto choice, Diapason d’or du mois), and his album released in 2017, is devoted to Brahms (Opus 77/78) with Zoltan Kocsis on piano and conducting the Hungarian National Orchestra.
Alongside his career as a soloist, Laurent Korcia regularly teaches violin.
Currently Professor of violin at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, he gives master classes at a number of regional conservatoires: Nantes, Nancy, Metz, Toulon, Saint Maur, Rueil Malmaison, etc., as well as abroad: Nagoya (Japan), Neuchâtel (HEM), Taipei (Taiwan), Seoul (Korea), Los Angeles (Colburn School), Moscow (Gnessin School), etc.
LAURENT KORCIA currently plays the Zahn, a 1719 Stradivarius on loan from the LVMH – Louis Vuitton-Moët-Hennessy group.
