"The glory of this issue, however, is cellist Nadège Rochat’s
performance. She captures the improvisatory character of her first
entry superbly and her memorably sweet tone is ideally suited to
Dvorak’s near-vocal lyricism."
BBC Music Magazine
Nadège Rochat
In a nutshell
Nadège Rochat is a distinguished voice among the young cellists of her generation. Her approach to performing well-known cello masterpieces is driven by a search for something absolute, and combined with her attraction towards new compositions, she has immersed herself in a wide range of styles over the years. Recently, Rochat has been compelled to shed light on lesser known works from the past which deserve a broader audience. Additionally, traditional world music and its interpreters are infinite sources of inspiration for her.
The season highlights
Highlights of 2022-2023 include a tour as soloist with the London Philharmonia together with conductor Chloé van Soeterstede, as well as her debut in the Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona). She performed as a soloist with the Franz Schubert Filharmonia, in a trio with Soyoung Yoon (violin) and Judith Jauregui (piano), in the Auditorio Nacional de Musica (Madrid), and with the Orchestre National de Cannes with Benjamin Levy. She will also return to the stage as a soloist with the Bochumer Symphoniker under conductor Joseph Bastian, as well as with the Dortmunder Konzerthaus together with Kammerorchester of the Nationaltheater Prag. She is very excited to be a part of an unusual project with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève which will be revealed in March. Rochat is looking forward to working together with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon for the first time, recording a beautiful new cello concerto by the Portuguese composer Nuno Corte-Real
In more detail...
Nadège Rochat has performed in many of the world’s most important halls. Tonhalle Zürich, Vienna’s Musikverein, Konzerthaus Berlin, Carnegie Hall New York, the Mariinsky Theatre in St.Petersburg, The Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the KKL in Luzern, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico and the Victoria Hall in Geneva are just some of her favorites. She has performed with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Weimar, The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Yuri Bashmet and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR), the Bochumer Symphoniker, the Orchestre de chambre de Genève, the Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse, and the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of the Polish radio. She has also appeared in the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, the Cello Unwrapped festival in London, the Cervantino Festival in Mexico, and the Settimane musicali of Ascona, among others. Her duo with Spanish guitarist Rafael Aguirre performs Spanish and Latin-American repertoire which can be heard on their CD, “La Vida breve” (2012). In 2022, they premiered the double concerto for cello and guitar “Fulgores” written for them by Lorenzo Palomo. Her first CD “Lalo-Milhaud” with the Württembergische Philharmonie and Ola Rudner featured the first cello concertos of both Edouard Lalo and Darius Milhaud. Her critically acclaimed “Cello Abbey” (2017), recorded with the Staatskapelle Weimar under Paul Meyer, includes the cello concertos of W. Walton and E. Elgar, as well as the first performance of Ina Boyle’s never performed “Elegy.” In her most recent CD “Dvorak-Caplet”, she performs the Dvorak Concerto and the Epiphanie by André Caplet together with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. A French and Swiss citizen, Nadège Rochat was born into a musical family in Geneva. She later studied in Cologne with Maria Kliegel and attended masterclasses with Heinrich Schiff and Anner Bijlsma among others before graduating from the Royal Academy of Music under Robert Cohen where she is now a professor. Since the age of 13, Nadège Rochat has been a practitioner of oriental belly dance and is passionate about Flamenco. Dance inspires her approach to music, which for her ties together the physical with the cerebral experience of making music. Nadège Rochat also maintains a keen interest in European, Arabic and Asiatic philosophies as she aims to live a sustainable life. She plays a cello by Amati « Ex-Vatican » (1620) on generous loan by the Academia de Arte de Florencia.