With Violaine Cochard, the harpsichord literally reveals all its faces. Her training is marked by an obvious discipline: first lessons at the age of 8 with Françoise Marmin in Angers, her native town, studies from 1991 onwards at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, with illustrious professors (Christophe Rousset and Kenneth Gilbert), and further studies with Pierre Hantaï. She won two First Prizes at the CNSM, in harpsichord and basso continuo, in 1994, and won the First Prize at the prestigious Montreal International Competition in 1999.
At the same time, Violaine Cochard began a very intense career. An accomplished recitalist, but also an exceptional chamber musician, she founded the Amarillis ensemble with Ophélie and Héloïse Gaillard at a very young age. Here too, success was not long in coming, and the ensemble won First Prizes in famous competitions (York in 1995, Fnapec in 1997 and Sinfonia in 1997). She is also the partner of eminent musicians, such as the countertenor Gérard Lesne, the gambist Marianne Muller or the violinists Amandine Beyer and Stéphanie-Marie Degand.
Violaine Cochard is also a recognized pedagogue, having taught at the Montpellier Conservatory and regularly invited to give master classes. After the harpsichord, the voice is Violaine Cochard's other passion, and she is known to be one of the most sought-after vocal coaches in Europe. She devotes herself to her love of the vocal art by occupying a central place in baroque ensembles: Les Talens Lyriques (Christophe Rousset), Le Concert d'Astrée (Emmanuelle Haïm) or La Diane Française (Stéphanie-Marie Degand).
Through her numerous collaborations, she has made some thirty recordings for Opus 111, K617, Ambroisie-Naïve, Zig-Zag Territoires, Virgin Classics, Arion, AgOgique and Alpha. As a soloist, she has made two recordings devoted to François Couperin, a third featuring works by J.S. Bach, which was particularly appreciated by the critics, and a recording of Jacques Duphly's pieces for harpsichord and violin and Mozart's first sonatas with her long-time accomplice, the violinist Stéphanie-Marie Degand.
In addition to her activities in the baroque world, Violaine Cochard also likes to collaborate with musicians from other musical worlds, such as the contemporary music group Tram des Balkans, as well as the jazz pianist Édouard Ferlet, with whom she created a singular and original duet which was the subject of a first disc very much appreciated by the critics, Bach Plucked/Unplucked (Alpha Classics) and a new opus just as much appreciated by the critics, Plucked'N Dance.
- Model ID: GLDA886350
