‘If the drawing is of calligraphic precision, the supple, direct gesture sweeps the listener along in movements that have the fluidity of a mountain stream’ writes Diapason, while Strad magazine puts her ‘at the head of the pack’ and the Times hails ‘Gaillard’s magician’s fingering, a great lyrical heart and a kaleidoscope of colours’.
A spirit of insatiable curiosity, a taste for risk, an immoderate appetite for the entire cello concerto repertoire that knows neither borders nor limits, a commitment to social responsibility and an unconditional love of nature – these are undoubtedly the qualities that set this brilliant Franco-Swiss performer apart from an early age. Voted ‘Instrumental Soloist of the Year’ at the 2003 Victoires de la Musique Classique awards, she has since performed recitals across Asia and Europe, and has been a guest soloist with the most prestigious orchestras, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Orchestre National de Metz, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic.
She entertains privileged relations with contemporary composers and regularly commissions new works. She has recorded several complete works for Aparté to international acclaim: Bach, Britten, Schumann, Fauré, Chopin, Brahms, CPE Bach, Strauss, as well as thematic albums that have won over a vast audience: Dreams, Alvorada and Exils, Vivaldi, I colori dell’ombra, a Night in London, Napoli!
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“What the subtle bow unveils is pure emotion”
Diapason
“If the drawing is of calligraphic precision, the supple, direct gesture carries the listener along in movements that have the fluidity of a mountain stream”.
Diapason
“Gaillard, of course, comes into her own, playing with great tonal warmth and directness of expression, all the while meeting Boccherini’s technical challenges with accomplished ease”.
Tim Ashley, Gramophone
Videos
Discography
Napoli
Aparté, 2023
A Night In London
Aparté, 2022
Cellopera
Aparté, 2021
I Colori Dell’Ombra
Aparté, 2020
Programs 2024/2025
Mother Nature
With this programme, Ophélie Gaillard pays a double tribute to nature and women through compositions and transcriptions, from Hildegarde von Bingen to Sofia Gubaidulina.
Women Composers
At the beginning of the 20th century, the rules of propriety still required women cellists to play in amazon… and if some women composers, like Nadia Boulanger, had a glorious destiny, how many remained in the shadows! This programme highlights leading female composers, some of them little-known to the general public, and above all singular and extraordinarily contrasting works, from Mélanie Bonis’s little salon piece to Rita Strohl’s great post-romantic sonata.
Cello Tanguero
A great lover of tango, Ophélie Gaillard’s project brings together William Sabatier’s bandoneon and the strings of Debussy(s) in original arrangements that trace the history of a cross-fertilisation. It’s also an opportunity to pay tribute to a great porteña figure exiled in Geneva, the composer Alberto Ginastera, who dedicated major works to the cello and voice, and whose demanding, virtuoso universe is rooted in Latin American folk traditions.
Fiesta Latina
From Villa Lobos to Piazzolla, via Leonard Bernstein’s Puerto Rico, this is a festive, mixed programme.
Cello Minimal
In 2025 Ophélie Gaillard and the Swiss Cellists will be celebrating the centenary of Pierre Boulez’s birth by playing what is probably his most fascinating piece: Messagesquisse. 40 years after its creation, this work, which is as much spectral as it is rock, explores and explodes the framework of the strictest serialism in 7 minutes of highly pyrotechnic vertigo. At the opposite end of the spectrum, a monument to the literature of our century: Steve Reich’s Cellocounterpoint. Pieces by Arvo Pärt resonate with the writing of minimalist composers of the younger generation.