Nicolas Dautricourt
"Mendelssohn's beloved Violin Concerto was the one piece Friday that qualified as mainstream fare, although French-born soloist Nicolas Dautricourt brought a fresh perspective to the piece. Where the opening movement can find violinists slipping into taffy-pull phrasing and over emoting, Dautricourt instead played with a lithe elegance, forward momentum and structural clarity, as if Mendelssohn's inspired melodies needed no special pleading. His tone was small-scaled but expressive, his technique was secure, tempos were brisk and the modest size of the orchestra encouraged a chamber-like back and forth between the soloist, conductor and ensemble." —Mark Stryker, Detroit Free Press, January 2015

"This immensely appealing programme created for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center showed the charisma and intensity of Nicolas Dautricourt, the fiery violinist from Paris, and the intelligence of his excellent pianist, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger. Schubert’s Rondo brillant in B minor proved true to its name, with Dautricourt as graceful in its long lines as he was in those of Ysaÿe’s Poème élégiaque that followed... And, when appropriate, Dautricourt is not afraid to use a gruff tone, which he also deployed in an athletic, exhausting reading of Bartok’s Sonata no.1 that closed the evening. Most impressive was the hallucinatory Adagio, but the feral, percussive final Allegro was not far behind. " —Bruce Hodges, The Strad Magazine, November 2014

Voted "ADAMI Classical Discovery of the Year" at the Midem in Cannes, Sacem "Georges Enesco" Prize, Nicolas Dautricourt is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant and engaging French violinists of his generation.

A member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, he appears at major venues around the world (Washington Kennedy Center , New York Alice Tully Hall, London Wigmore Hall, Moscow Tchaikovsky Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Boston Gardner Museum, Teatro Nacional de Belém, Copenhagen Concert Hall, Ongakudo Hall Kanazawa, Nagoya Shirakawa Hall, Sendai city Hall... ), in France (Salle Pleyel, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Cité de la Musique, Metz Arsenal, Musée d’Orsay, Opéra du Rhin, Grand Théâtre de Provence, etc.), and he is invited to many artistic events, including La Chaise-Dieu, La Roque d’Antheron, Printemps des Arts (Monaco), La Côte St André, Festival de l’Orangerie (Sceaux), Parc Floral (Vincennes), Folles Journées de Nantes, Rencontres Musicales de La Baule, Flâneries musicales de Reims, Deauville Easter Festival, Les Arcs, Périgord Noir, Auvers-sur-Oise, Musique à l’Empéri.

Nicolas Dautricourt, who is appreciated for his "sensitivity and passionate manner," is particularly fond of chamber music, which he plays alongside many inspiring artists, and keenly interested in jazz, he works regularly with top players such as Jean-Marie Ecay, Nelson Veras, Jean-Philippe Viret, Jean-Marc Jafet, Antoine Hervé, Dominique Fillon, Pascal Schumacher, as well as the accordionist Richard Galliano as a member of the Tangaria Quartet the Piazzolla Forever project, in such festivals as Jazz à Vienne, Marciac, Sud Tyroler Jazz Festival, San Javier, Copenhagen, Athens.

Finalist and prize-winner of numerous international violin competitions, such as the Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Poznan, the Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Belgrade, the Rodolfo Lipizer in Gorizia and the Gian-Battista Viotti in Vercelli Competitions, he has studied with Philip Hirschhorn, Miriam Fried, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Gérard Poulet and Jean Mouillère among others, and became in 2007 artistic director of "Les Moments Musicaux de Gerberoy."

He plays a magnificent instrument by Antonio Stradivarius (Cremona, 1713), the "Château Fombrauge," on a generous loan from Bernard Magrez.

Bertrand Raynaud
After his success at numerous international competitions (prize-winner at Scheveningen 1995, Makneukirchen 1992, Yamaha Paris Foundation 1993, semi-finalist of the Tchaikovsky competition in 1994), Bertrand Raynaud was invited in various countries among Europe and Japan as a soloist and chamber musician. Prestigious venues invited him to play (Radio-France, Théâtre du Châtelet, London Wigmore Hall, Tokyo Yamaha Hall, Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron and L’Empéri), where he performed with partners like Gérard Caussé, Marielle Nordman, Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer or Svetlin Roussev. Bertrand Raynaud studied the cello at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris, with Philippe Muller (Third cycle, 1992-93) and at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow (1994). Thereafter, he received the teaching of Janos Starker, David Geringas, and Lynn Harrell.

Holder of a master’s degree in French medieval Literature (Paris–Sorbonne 1997), he also engaged in writing theater and poetry. His theater pieces have been performed in Paris, Metz or Genève and, under translation, in Berlin (Berliner Festwochen 2004). Three books of his have been published, such as Mammifères, Planisphères, or Mille et une nuits: Théâtre. He also wrote booklets of operas, for composers François Sarhan and Benjamin de la Fuente (Les Articulations de la Reine; La langue dans le crâne). Laureate of the writing foundation Fondation Beaumarchais in 2005, he dedicated himself recently to the writing of short stories and narratives (La Mort en Province, 2015).

As a musician, he also approached other stage forms, like improvisation with the Turkish ney player Kudsi Erguner and scenic music writing, for choreographers like Christine Bastin and Carolyn Carlson.

​ Raynaud is teaching chamber music at the Conservatory of Boulogne-Billancourt (Pôle Supérieur).