Henri Demarquette

French cellist Henri Demarquette has built an international profile that places particular emphasis on contemporary repertoire when appearing as soloist, while his chamber-music activity spans an unusually broad stylistic range. Born in 1970, he displayed prodigious talent early, entering the Paris Conservatoire at thirteen and beginning to perform publicly the next year. His principal teachers in Paris were Philippe Muller and Maurice Gendron. After capturing first prize by unanimous jury vote, he pursued further training with Pierre Fournier and Paul Tortelier and also crossed the Atlantic to study with Janos Starker at Indiana University.

Concerts filled his mid-teen years, culminating in an official debut at seventeen with a recital at the Théâtre du Châtelet. Shortly afterward a duo program with pianist Hélène Grimaud aired on France 3, drawing the notice of Yehudi Menuhin, who subsequently engaged him for two performances of the Dvořák Cello Concerto under his own direction. These appearances opened the door to a solo career that has taken him to French orchestras as well as the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Tokyo Symphony, among many others.

In chamber settings Demarquette has led his own Demarquette Trio, joined violinist Augustin Dumay, violist Svetlin Roussev, and violist Miguel de Silva in a string quartet, and collaborated in duo recitals with Boris Berezovsky, Vanessa Benelli Mosell, Fabrizio Chiovetta, Jean-Bernard Pommier, and Michel Dalberto. Another frequent partner has been French accordionist Richard Galliano; together they have explored repertoire stretching from Bach to the present day, including a concerto written by Galliano himself for cello, accordion, and orchestra. Demarquette has also given numerous world premieres of contemporary scores and participated in a widely noted 2006 concert marking Henri Dutilleux’s ninetieth birthday.

The majority of his recordings have appeared on the Timpani label; in 2017 he recorded Michel Legrand’s Cello Concerto for Sony Classical. The following year he issued the album Portrait with Orchestra, containing works by Jacques Ibert, Philippe Gaubert, Florent Schmitt, Gabriel Fauré, Jean Cras, and Guy Ropartz.