Sound Espressivo Judges series, Olivier Chassain, guitar, France
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Olivier Chassain was born in Paris in 1957. He began studying the guitar in Limousin with Roger Généraux and completed his training with Carel Harms. In 1977, he entered the Conservatory of Paris (the current Cnsmdp) where he obtained in 1982 a first prize for guitar in the class of Alexandre Lagoya; he was also awarded a prize for counterpoint (class of Bernard de Crépy) and a prize for harmony (class of Roger Boutry).
Today, his triple professional activity makes him lead simultaneously:
a career as a concert performer, which took on an international dimension when he won the first prize in the "Guitar Foundation of America international competition" in 1988, thus becoming the first non-American guitarist to receive the highest distinction of this competition worldwide renamed. The following year (in 1989) he made a major tour organized by the GFA, across the entire North American continent: he was invited there regularly for concerts and master-classes, as well as on other continents.
a career as a composer: he is the author of numerous works, in particular for guitar, such as: “ Fantastic echoes ” i n memoriam I. Presti and A.Lagoya , “ Etoiles ”, “ Arion ”, “ De loin en loin ”, sonata for two guitars (1995), “ Doigts de fées ” (2010) for flute and guitar, sonata for solo guitar (2011)…, and educational collections such as “ Patchwork ”, “ Ad hoc ”, “ Brèves de lectern ”(2012)…
a teaching career which took off in Orléans in 1978, following his first teacher, Roger Généraux (he was established after obtaining his CA at the age of 21), and which saw its accomplishment when he was appointed in 1992 at the Jacques Thibaud Conservatory in Bordeaux, then in 1994 to succeed his master Alexandre Lagoya, as guitar teacher at the Paris National Conservatory of Music and Dance (Cnsmdp), where he still teaches today.
Olivier Chassain regularly leads, in addition to his conservatory lessons, instrumental improvement sessions within the framework of festivals, summer academies, as was notably the case in Dordogne from 1995 to 2010, at the Britten school in Périgueux directed by Jean-Jacques Rouveroux: this institute organized ad hoc courses throughout the year in all musical disciplines, and called on internationally renowned artists.
Olivier Chassain thus had, for his summer internship, the opportunity to invite many friends, renowned guitarists, such as J. Cogan, N. Koshkin, SI. Fukuda, B. Kanengiser, D. Bogdanovic, SE Olsen, F. Zigante, L. Blanquart, H. Navez, Jim Smith.
Since 2010, it has been organizing new sessions in Limousin, throughout the year.
Olivier Chassain's repertoire displays a great eclecticism, from the Renaissance to the music of today. Passionate about early music, he has also devoted himself to the lute and the vihuela for many years, in order to transmit through this privileged approach the sound and the spirit of this music. He is also fond of French music from the Grand Siècle and romantic music, which he plays alone or in the company of eminent artists such as P. Gallois, Ph. Muller, P.-H. Xuereb, R. Pidoux, E. Aubier, F. Pierre, G. Millière ...
Ardent defender of contemporary creation, Olivier Chassain is the dedicatee of numerous works for guitar (Stephen Dodgson, Antonio Ruiz-Pipo, Thierry Pécou, Sean Heim) and of concertos: "Escales" by Roland Creuze: created in Bordeaux with the ensemble Musique Nouvelle and Michel Fusté-Lambezat, as well as that of Edith Lejet, "Flowers in the shape of diamonds", from the concerto by Alain-Michel Riou, and more recently by Alain Margoni.
Olivier Chassain has made several records, under different labels, including "Almost a song" (Metronome recordings) which was crowned with the "Choc" of the World of Music, and "Eventail" by the review Classica. An album devoted to the complete compositions of Ida Presti - the world's first recording -, in duet with the Norwegian guitarist Stein-Erik Olsen, received a rave reception from music critics (ranked in the 'top 5' of the 10 best albums classics of 2009 in Scandinavia), under the Simax label.
Several other recordings are in the pipeline, including a second album with his friend SE Olsen, for the Simax label, in a repertoire of original works dedicated to the Duo Presti-Lagoya.
