Flute
Born in Bordeaux in 1969, Sylvain Millepied studied music at the Conservatoire de Région de Bordeaux, where he was awarded the Médaille d'Or in flute and chamber music (1987) and the Médaille d'Honneur de la ville de Bordeaux by unanimous vote (1988). That same year, he was a finalist in the Darius Milhaud International Competition and gave his first concerts as a soloist in Poland (Warsaw, Krakow, Zakopane).
He continued his studies in Paris in Maurice Pruvot's class (1989 and 1990), where he won first prizes in superior and advanced classes.
He studied with Robert Pichaureau, a specialist in breathing techniques applied to wind instruments, and with Alain Marion, Catherine Cantin, Andras Adorjan and Jean-Pierre Rampal during master classes and courses.
In 1994, Sylvain Millepied won the Maria Canals International Competition in Barcelona, then the Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation (1995), and was a semi-finalist in the Young Concert Artist Competition in New York (1996).
His taste for encounters and artistic experiments naturally leads him to perform as often as possible with other musicians. He performed as a soloist with Alain Marion at the Auditorium des Halles in Paris, before joining the Proxima Centauri ensemble in 1998.
He plays in a duo with guitarist Jean-Luc Rocchietti (CD "Rencontre concertante", 2000), and participates in a number of orchestras and ensembles, including the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Les Symphonistes d'Aquitaine, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestre de Chambre de Gironde, Ensemble Des Concertants and Trio Debussy. He also collaborates with the "Danses Concertantes" troupe on a series of performances in London and New York.
He performs solo recitals with his flutes, displaying his virtuosity and expressive range in a repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary music (Brussels PACT Festival at the Cirque Royal). He has been a guest solo flautist with France Musique (2000) and the BBC in London (2002), and recorded for RTBF as part of the Ars Musica Festival (2003).
Alongside his activities as an instrumentalist, he has written a musical tale for children entitled "Rémi, Julie et les secrets de la musique" (a voyage of discovery through world music) and composed the accompanying music for Yang Xing Do (an oriental martial art).