Overview
Biography
Xavier de Maistre (born October 22, 1973) is a French harpist.
Life
Studies
Maistre started to study the harp in his hometown conservatory in Toulon when he was nine-year-old. Later he travelled to Paris to perfecting his technique with Jacqueline Borot and Catherine Michel as he studied Political Sciences and Economics at the London School of Economics at the same time.
Career
At the age of sixteen, Maistre won his first international competition in Paris and later was awarded several times at the international competitions held in Cardiff, Munich, Vienna and Jerusalem. In 1998 he got the first prize and two interpretation prizes at the Bloomington International Harp Competition, the world's most prestigious harp competition in the United States. Later in the same year Maistre become the first French musician to join the ranks of the prestigious Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a soloist, Maistre has appeared with numerous orchestras under the baton of such eminent conductors as Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir André Prévin, Heinrich Schiff, Antoni Ros Marbà, Bertrand de Billy, Walter Weller, Gilbert Varga, Josep Pons and Philippe Jordan, amongst others. He became the first harpist to appear as a soloist at one of the Vienna Philharmonic's subscription concerts In May 2002.
Maistre has also been invited to perform at many of Europe's leading festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein, Salzburg, Rheingau, Vienna and Verbier Festivals, the Budapest Spring Festival and the Würzburg Mozart Festival. Among the artists he has performed with are Kathleen Battle, Ingolf Turban, Anne Gastinel, Diana Damrau and Barbara Bonney and actors such as Peter Simonischek and Andrea Jonasson.
Among highlights of a tour with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Daniele Gatti in 2009, during Maistre appeared as a soloist at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Cologne Philharmonie and the Vienna Konzerthaus; concerts with the Orchestre National de France under Riccardo Muti at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; a series of recitals with Diana Damrau at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, Paris Opera, La Scala, and the Musikhalle in Hamburg and recitals with Bo Skovhus at the Semper Oper in Dresden, the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf and the Musikverein.
As a teacher
Maistre has taught at the Hamburg Academy of Music since 2001. He gives regular masterclasses at NewYork's Juilliard School of Music, Tokyo's Toho University and London's Trinity College of Music as well.
