Virgile Roche

Born 1998 in France, Virgile Roche is one of the most versatile pianists of today’s young European scene. He was admitted at the age of 17 to the Paris Conservatory, where he won a total of 7 first prizes: Piano (with Emmanuel Strosser, Cécile Hugonnard-Roche, Marie-Josèphe Jude and Jonas Vitaud), Chamber Music (with François Salque and Claire Désert), Collaborative Piano (with Reiko Hozu), Harmony (with Fabien Waksman), Counterpoint (with François Saint-Yves), Composition (with Thomas Lacôte) and Orchestration (with Marc-André Dalbavie). He also studied with Nelson Goerner in Geneva, and is now an Artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel under the direction of Frank Braley and Avedis Kouyoumdjian.

During academies and masterclasses, he also worked with (among others) pianists Bernard d’Ascoli, Michel Dalberto, Bertrand Chamayou, Michel Béroff, Jean-François Heisser, Cédric Tiberghien, Denis Pascal, Florent Boffard, Pascal Devoyon, François Dumont, but also with chamber musicians such as Hatto Beyerle and Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet), Patrick Jüdt, Jan Talich Jr and Petr Prause (Talich Quartet), Johannes Meissl (Artis Quartet), Miguel Da Silva, Guillaume Sutre and Marc Coppey (Quatuor Ysaye), Corina Belcea (Belcea Quartet), Antonio Meneses (Beaux-Arts Trio), all members of Ebène and Modigliani Quartets, and of the Wanderer Piano Trio.

Major prize of several international competitions (winner of the prestigious Safran Foundation Prize for Music 2020, 2d Prize and three special prizes at Piano Campus International Competition 2020, 2d Prize at Brest International Piano competition 2018…) and noticed at some of the biggest piano events worldwide (quarter-finalist at Salt Lake City’s ‘Gina Bachauer’ 2024 and Dublin 2022 International Piano Competitions), he is also laureate of the Banque Populaire, l’Or du Rhin, Royaumont, Singer-Polignac and Peters Foundations, and is supported by the Société Générale Musical Patronage and the Nguyen Thien Dao Fund.

He performs regularly in recital and with orchestras, recently with the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie, the Liège Chamber Orchestra, the Bacău Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra giovanile Filarmonici Friulani. Besides his career as a soloist, he is very fond of chamber music, as well with string, wind or percussion instruments. He has been a member of the Trio Pantoum from its foundation in 2016 to 2023, which has been awarded many important international prizes (Munich ARD, Trio di Trieste, Joseph Haydn Vienna, Osaka, Melbourne, Lyon, Joseph Joachim Weimar…). In parallel, he has shared the stage with instrumentalists and singers such as Michel Dalberto, Tatiana Samouil, Pierre Fouchenneret, Éléonore Pancrazi, Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, François Salque, Paul Zientara, Aleksandra Dzenisenia, Ann Lepage, Thaïs Raï-Westphal, João Pedro Gonçalves, Michael Song, Seongyoung Yun, the Métamorphoses, Yako and Nerida Quartets… but also with dancers like Benjamin Millepied. He is also particularly interested in the German Lied and French Mélodie repertoire, and is currently perfecting his skills in Anne Le Bozec’s vocal accompaniment class at the Paris Conservatoire.

Being particularly enthusiastic for the 20th and 21th Centuries repertoires, Virgile Roche defends with passion the piano and chamber music works of various composers like Ligeti, Berio, Crumb, Dutilleux, Messiaen, Carter, Takemitsu, Henze, Srnka, Sciarrino, Scelsi, Varèse, Feldman but also Hindemith, Berg, Stravinsky, Bartók, Weinberg, Antheil, Schoenberg, Casella, Copland, Ghedini…

He’s regularly invited by prestigious festivals in France and Europe (Festival des Arcs, Festival International de Piano de la Roque d’Anthéron, Festival Nice Classic Live, Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Festival Européen Jeunes Talents, La Belle Saison, Festival Piano Campus, Bologna Festival, Trondheim Kammermusikfest, Festival Musicorum in Brussels, Ghent Flanders Festival, Schiermonnikoog Festival in the Netherlands…) and he performed in some of Europe’s most beautiful venues (Philharmonie, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord and Salle Cortot in Paris, Salle Molière and Opera’s main hall in Lyon, Cappella Paolina del Quirinale in Roma, Flagey in Brussels, Prinzregententheater in Munich, Salle Franz Liszt in Geneva, MuTh and Joseph Haydn Saal in Vienna, MIRY in Ghent, Frimurerlogen in Trondheim… but also Izumi Hall in Osaka, Elizabeth Murdoch Hall in Melbourne, Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City…). He was broadcasted live by medias such as BR-Klassik, ABC Classic, the Violin Channel, Rai 3, NPO Klassiek, Ö1, France Musique, SBS French… and appears in newspapers like the Strad, Archi Magazine, ClassikON, Limelight, Diapason, Télérama, The Age, ResMusica, The Utah Review…

In 2024, he has been invited to perform in France, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, the USA, the UAE… In October, he will participate in the 11th Franz Liszt Competition in Weimar and Bayreuth (Germany). Next winter, he will perform Mozart’s Concerto K.458 with the Wallony Royal Chamber Orchestra at the prestigious Arsonic Concert Hall in Mons (Belgium), and he will record his two first CDs: one devoted to sonatas for cello and piano by Rachmaninov and Croatian composer Dora Pejačević (with cellist Jean-Baptiste Maizières), the other to Fauré’s second piano quartet (with Júlia Pusker, Miguel Da Silva and Léo Ispir).