Winner of the famous piano duet ARD competition in Munich in 2021, the Geister duo is now considered as one of the most promising piano ensemble of his generation.
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 Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin, the other at the CNSMD in Paris (Paris Conservetoire), 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 Conservatoire 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 the same year 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 Postgraduate at the Mozarteum University, Salzburg in Austria, where they further developed their research as a duo.
Unanimously distinguished for his artistic symbiosis and his musical engagement, the duo wins first prize and five special prizes at the ARD Competition ( german radios ) in 2021,which leads the duo towards an internation carrier. T
he Geister duo have performed in several festivals and halls in France : Folles Journées de Nantes, La Roque d'Anthéron, Les musicales du Pays d'Auge, Salon-de-Provence, la Seine Musicale in Paris, Salle Poirel in Nancy, in Germany ( Schwarzwald Musikfestival, Mozartfest Würzburg among others ) Austria, Spain, Italy and recently in Czech Republic for a tour.
Their first recording with works by Schumann, Brahms and Dvořák was released by Mirare in January 2022. The second CD with works by Debussy and Stravinsky was also released by Mirare at the beginning of 2023 with the support of the Carl Bechstein Foundation.
Fotos © Lyodoh Kaneko
