David Salmon and Manuel Vieillard have been forming the Geister Duo for almost 10 years, and are now considered one of the most promising duos of their generation. In 2019, they won the 2nd prize at the International Schubert Competition for piano duet in the Czech Republic and the 1st prize and audience prize at the International 4-handed piano competition in Monaco. In 2021, they won the first prize at the ARD Munich International Competition, a real consecration for the piano duet, as well as 5 special prizes.
David Salmon and Manuel Vieillard began their collaboration while students at the CRR in Paris (Regional Conservetoire in Paris). Their meeting gave rise to the desire to work in depth on the duo repertoire, not as two soloists meeting for a concert, but as a real chamber music ensemble. Each completing his solo piano studies, one at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, the other at the CNSMD in Paris (Paris Conservatoire), from which they graduated with flying colours and both won international competitions, they perfected their duet skills with Emmanuel Strosser at the CRR, and then finally devoted themselves to it full-time with Claire Désert in the master’s degree in chamber music at the CNSMD in Paris.
Invited as an ensemble in residence to the international festival of La Roque d’Anthéron in 2018 and 2019, they have also benefited from the advice of Christian Ivaldi and the Trio Wanderer. Committed to the dissemination of contemporary repertoire, they were invited in 2019 to the Académie de Villecroze by Jean-François Heisser and Jean-Frédéric Neuburger for masterclasses on works of the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2020 they joined the prestigious Tal & Groethuysen duo class in the Postgraduate course at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where they further developed their research as a duo. After performing at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Festival International de La Roque d’Anthéron, the Cercle Suédois and the Petit Palais in Paris, and the Journées Ravel in Monfort l’Amaury, the Geister Duo will be featured in 2020 at the Folle journée de Nantes, performing Beethoven’s complete works for four hands. In recent months, they have toured the Czech Republic, given recitals at the Seine Musicale and at the Festival International de La Roque d’Anthéron, at the Promenades musicales du Pays d’Auge, at the Soirées du Castellet… Their next projects will take them to the Cologne Philharmonic alongside the WDR Sinfonieorchester, to the Salzburg Mozarteum (Klangreisen im Solitär) for a “Ravel Intégral” programme, to Alsace for a tour of 7 concerts with the AJAM, and to Pays de la Loire and Nantes for various Folles Journées concerts… The Geister Duo is supported by the ADAMI and the Safran Foundation for Music.
