WashU Symphony Orchestra: "Sir Elgar" featuring Sébastien Hurtaud, cello

"Sir Edward," Celebrating 100 years of the Elgar Cello Concerto

Conductor-in-Residence: Darwin Aquino

Pomp and Circumstance March, Op. 39, No. 1 - Edward Elgar
Enigma Variations, Op. 36 - Elgar
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 - Elgar

featuring  Sébastien Hurtaud, cello

Sébastien Hurtaud was described by the Forbes Magazine as “dramatic and expressive” and The Strad Magazine describes him as "a cellist to watch, because he has his own style of performance, a high level of imagination, and a combination of elegance and drive.

After receiving the highest honors and diploma from several world-leading music schools (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, Southern Methodist University of Dallas Texas), Sébastien Hurtaud is laureate of the Aldo Parisot competition in South-Korea, and the Naumburg Foundation in New York city. He won first prize and the J.S. Bach award at the 2009 Adam International Cello Competition in Christchurch in New-Zealand. Subsequently, he played various concerts as a soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Hurtaud has been concertizing as a soloist and chamber musician all over the world. He has performed in renowned concert halls such as the New York Metropolitan Museum, Dallas Caruth Concert Hall, Haden Freeman Concert Hall in Manchester, Icho Hall in Tokyo, Mogador Theater, Salle Cortot in Paris, and the Teatro Manoel in Malta to name a few. 

Sébastien Hurtaud regularly performs as a chamber musician accompanied by such musicians as Bruno Canino, Pieter-Jelle Deboer, Bertrand Giraud, Stephen Prutsman, Chee-yun Kim, Gerard Caussé, Alexis Galperine, Adam Laloum, and Pamela Hurtaud, his wife. Hurtaud recorded the complete cello sonatas by Paul Hindemith for Naxos with pianist Pamela Hurtaud, which the international critics emphasized the "entrancing imagination, real personality, maturity and intelligence" of "a cellist definitely worth hearing.” Recently he performed at St. Ulrich Festival with violinist Lana Trotovsek and Pamela Hurtaud.

Sebastien Hurtaud was honored to be the only French cellist to be invited  by the Army General, Mr. Andoque de Seriège and Miss Darrieussecq of Secretary Defense to perform the Elgar and Farr cello concerti accompanied by the Garde Républicaine National orchestra under the direction of conductor François Boulanger and the Australian conductor Daniel Linton-France at the Invalides Cathedral in Paris to celebrate the End of the WW1. Mr. Hurtaud is regularly invited to Panama to perform and teach masterclasses. In January 2019, he performed during a highlight concert in Panama Canal Muséum for the world Youth Day. Sebastien Hurtaud performed two world premieres: one composed by Jose Elizondo and the other one composed by Grégoire Igert. Those pieces have been recorded by three-time-Grammy-Award-prize-winner Robert Griffin.  Next season his new album dedicated to the soldiers of World War I featuring concerti by Elgar and Gareth Farr will be released by Rubicon.