Raphaël Oleg

Born in Paris in 1959, Raphaël Oleg won a First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1986. At the age of 12 he began formal musical training at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, which he completed with two First Prizes for violin and chamber music. But even before his acclaimed success at the Tchaikovsky Competition, Raphaël Oleg had already established an excellent reputation as a chamber music partner and solo artist and collaborated with many of Europe’s leading orchestras. He met with wide acclaim at the 1986 Lucerne Festival for his solo performance with the Czech Philharmonic under Vaclav Neumann where he stepped in at the last minute for Joseph Suk. His performance there led to an invitation to appear with the Orchestre National de France under Lorin Maazel and joint concerts given at important music festivals. In 1987 classical music audiences in England discovered him when – again at the last minute – he stepped in to perform a Brahms concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Jeffrey Tate, which led to further engagements to perform with them.
Raphaël Oleg has appeared in concert with all the leading orchestras with such well-known conductors as Lorin Maazel, Sir Neville Marriner, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Armin Jordan, Riccardo Chailly. He has been invited to perform in Japan seven times. In 1992 and 1996 concert tours took him to Australia and New Zealand. Raphaël Oleg is an avid performer of chamber music and performs with recitals partners such as Barry Douglas, Christian Ivaldi and Artur Pizarro. He is also a member of the faculty at the Basel Music Conservatory.