Description
The French clarinetist Michel Lethiec is currently considered one of the eminent figures in the international music scene. A highly active performer on concert stages and at festivals, he is also deeply passionate about teaching and actively contributes to research and the dissemination of repertoire, both as a performer and as a program designer.
He performs as a soloist and in chamber music, collaborating with renowned performers and orchestras.
An enthusiastic interpreter of contemporary music, he has premiered numerous pieces and concertos, including works by Penderecki, Corigliano, Denisow, Maratka, Ballif, Landowski, Decoust, Dalbavie, Fourchotte, Risset, Scolari, Narita, Brotons, Hersant, Giraud, Lee, and Ryu…
His extensive discography, for labels such as Lyrinx, Naxos, Arion, RCA, Bis, Talent, and Actes Sud, includes two major record awards and unique recordings such as: the concertos and chamber music of Krzysztof Penderecki, Porgy & Bess, Préludes, Gershwin’s Concerto in F arranged by Frank Villard for clarinet and strings. The Tears and Prayers of Isaac the Blind by Golijov with string quartet (live recording).
His second recording of Penderecki’s Concerto (under the composer’s direction) received the International Record Prize (March 2016), and the quintets by Bernard Herrmann (Hitchcock’s composer) and David Del Tredici are now part of his discography with the Fine Arts Quartet (Naxos).
A compact disc devoted to the clarinet music of Krystof Maratka (chamber music and the concerto Luminarium) is released by Arion, featuring the author on piano, violist Karine Lethiec, the Zemlinski Quartet, and the Talich Orchestra).
In November 2018, he premiered, with Patrick Gallois and the Juventus Orchestra of Warsaw, the new Concerto for flute, clarinet, and orchestra by Krzysztof Penderecki.
A renowned educator, he is Honorary Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Professor at the Conservatoire de Nice, regularly gives master classes at major foreign institutions, and serves on the juries of international competitions.
As the founder of the International Chamber Music Academy of Prades and Artistic Director of the prestigious Pablo Casals Festival for several decades, he welcomed the greatest chamber musicians and their students every summer, presenting original programs at the St. Michel de Cuxa Abbey as well as at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and in several other capitals: Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Puerto Rico…
Michel Lethiec is a Knight in the National Order of Merit and in the Order of Arts and Letters.
He plays on a set of clarinets by Henri SELMER Paris Recital.
