Geneviève Laurenceau is one of the most brilliant and heterogeneous violinists in France. Due to her multiple roles as soloist, chamber artist, teacher and festival director, she is considered a consummate professional who extends her passion to all forms of her art. She began to play violin at the age of three in her hometown Strasbourg. Her mentors, Wolfgang Marschner, Zakhar Bron and Jean-Jacques Kantorow, have shaped a multifaceted artist at the crossroads of three great European schools of violin. After successfully completing several undertakings abroad and winning first prize, and the Novosibirsk international competition, she won the fifth Le Violon de l´Adami competition and made her first recording with pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. Geneviève Laurenceau has performed as a guest soloist with leading orchestras in France and abroad under the direction of conductors such as François-Xavier Roth, Michel Plasson, Walter Weller, Tugan Sokhiev, Thomas Sondergard, Antony Hermus and Christian Arming.
She gained significant experience as a ‘super soloist’ with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse from 2007 to 2017, until her creative needs led her to follow new artistic endeavours.
In 2011, Geneviève Laurenceau was chosen as ‘Artist of the Year’ by ResMusica. Her love of the stage and of sharing her firm beliefs in the essential values of art, culture and music drive her passion for interdisciplinary encounters. This includes her string quintet ‘Smoking Joséphine’, created in 2018, and ‘The Symphony of Birds’, a show featuring music and dreamscapes, with the two ‘bird singers’ Johnny Rasse and Jean Boucault. Involved in the repertoire of her time, she regularly works with composers such as Benjamin Attahir, Karol Beffa, Benoit Menut, Fabien Touchard and Philippe Hersant, among others, who dedicate their works to her. Her repeatedly awarded discography has earned a place of honour for the French repertoire. Her teaching activity began in 2017 when Philippe Jaroussky invited her to join the staff of his academy, the Seine Musicale in Boulogne-Billancourt. At present, Geneviève is a violin professor at the Alfred Cortot Normal School of Music in Paris and at the Higher Institute for Music Teaching in Aix-en-Provence. She is the artistic director of the Obernai Music Festival, founded under her direction in 2009.
Geneviève plays a Goffredo Cappa violin built in 1700.