Loan Cazal, viola

Loan Cazal is a French violist. In 2014 he was selected as principal viola in Yuri Bashmet’s youth orchestra and later played with him at the Musikverein in Vienna. This meeting would have a lasting influence on his career and confirmed his desire to become an international violist.

In March 2017, at the age of 19, Loan Cazal was awarded the position of principal viola with the Württembergisches Kammerorchester in Heilbronn, which made him the ‘youngest principal viola in Germany’. This position played a key role in his career, leading him to perform across Germany, in both major venues and musically renowned cities (Munich, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Weimar, etc.).

His liking for the position of section leader brought him many opportunities. He was then noticed by several prestigious orchestras and was regularly invited to replace as principal viola in orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Weimar, Orchestre Royal Philharmonique de Liège, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, La Monnaie in Brussels, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Niederbayerische Philharmonie in Passau, Orchestre de Douai, Orchestre national de Metz, Orchestre national de Montpellier and others … He has performed under many well-known conductors, including Klaus Mäkelä, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Dennis Russell Davies, François Leleux, Jean-Jacques Kantorow and John Storgårds.

From 2019 to 2020 he was selected as principal viola with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Since July 2019, he has been teaching viola at the “Giovanni Virtuosi” academy alongside Igor Voloshine. In September 2019 he founded, with conductor Nicolas Kruger, Ensemble Libertalia in the Hauts-de-France region, a string orchestra whose sponsor is Jean-Claude Casadesus.

In 2021 he released a chamber music CD with the Castro-Balbi brothers on the CPO label in Cologne. It featured Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet and Hummel’s Quintet. This recording revealed him as an expert chamber musician, leading him to play chamber music regularly with internationally renowned musicians such as Tedi Papavrami, Alexis Kossenko, Richard Dubugnon, Karine Deshayes and Miguel Da Silva, to name but a few.

Since September 2021, he has been artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where he works with Miguel Da Silva.

Loan Cazal currently plays a Guadagnini 1775 viola (Giovanni-Baptista and Giuseppe, father & son), kindly lent by Jürg Dähler and Florian Leonhard.