Cecile Lartigau is one of today’s rare ondes Martenot players, internationally recognized for her multifaceted career as a soloist, improviser and performer involved in performing arts. She is fascinated by the John Cage’s philosophy which opens a way toward an emancipation of the performer. Her dedication to creation drives her to collaborate with the most creative artists such as Teodor Currentzis, Romeo Castellucci, Heiner Goebbels.
A leading interpreter, her vast repertoire includes works from solo to orchestra, by Bussotti, Parmegiani, Murail, Cage and Messiaen in particular, and she regularly premieres new works. Lartigau has recently recreated the striking trio piano, ondes Martenot and percussions in collaboration with Paul and Jeremy Gohier, and has also founded the duo Due Voci with Monica Benvenuti around the works of Bussotti and his disciples. At the same time, her researches on lost works have pushed her to rediscover the first music for ondes Martenot and orchestra, Poème Symphonique composed by Dimitrios Levidis in 1928.
Since 2018, Cecile has been touring, as an improviser, in Everything that happened and would happen, a large-scale production of Goebbels. She is a member of two improvised experimental music quintets : The Mayfield and Poulp'. In April 2023, she created her first scenic performance with music, light design and video projection on Candide ou l'Optimisme of the French philosopher Voltaire.
Her numerous activities have drived her performing worldwide (Europe, USA, Russia and Colombia) with leading conductors as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Teodor Currentzis, Michael Wendeberg, Maxime Pascal, Ryan Wigglesworth notably, and pianists Bertrand Chamayou and Yuja Wang. She has performed with Vienna Philharmonic, BBC Scottish, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Slovenian Philharmonic, MusicAeterna, E-Mex Ensemble, Le Balcon and has appeared at prestigious festivals and concert halls as Elbphilharmonie, Salzburg Festival (Grosses Festspielhaus), Lucerne Festival (KKL), Festival Messiaen, RuhrTriennale (Jahrhunderthalle), Diaghilev Festival among many others.
Firstly a violinist, Cecile Lartigau started studying the ondes Martenot in 2010 with Valérie Hartmann-Claverie. She is then awarded a master's degree in ondes Martenot, a second one in musicology and an Artist Diploma Creations from Paris and Lyon’s Conservatoires. As a musicologist, her researches focus on the indeterminacy and graphic notation in John Cage and Sylvano Bussotti’s music. Thanks to her extensive skills and her rigour, she affirms a powerful and recognizable artistic identity.
In the season 2023-2024, she will make her debut at La Scala di Milano with Maestro Zubin Mehta.
Cecile plays an onde Jean-Loup Dierstein and a palme Leo Maurel. She has been supported by Fondation Meyer, Fondation de France, Mécénat Musicale Société Générale and Fondation Nguyen Thien Dao.