Olivier Chassain

Olivier Chassain was born in Paris in 1957. He was awarded a premier prix in Guitar in Alexandre Lagoya’s class, as well as in Counterpoint and Harmony classes, at the Paris Conservatoire in 1982. Today, his professional activity is divided into three aspects: – his career as a concert performer, which acquired an international dimension when, in 1988, he became the laureate of the Guitar Foundation of America international competition, thereby being the first non-American guitarist to be awarded this…

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Olivier Chassain was born in Paris in 1957. He was awarded a premier prix in Guitar in Alexandre Lagoya’s class, as well as in Counterpoint and Harmony classes, at the Paris Conservatoire in 1982. Today, his professional activity is divided into three aspects:
– his career as a concert performer, which acquired an international dimension when, in 1988, he became the laureate of the Guitar Foundation of America international competition, thereby being the first non-American guitarist to be awarded this distinction. Since then, he has been regularly invited to that continent as well as to the others for concerts and master classes.
– his career as a composer. He is the author of numerous works, especially for guitar, and has composed collections for educational purposes, such as “Patchwork”, “Ad hoc”…
– his career as a professor, which began as early as 1978, when he succeeded his first professor, Roger Généraux (he acquired a tenure position at the age of 21, after obtaining a Certificat d’Aptitude – the highest French diploma in the musical teaching profession), a career which reached its fulfillment when he was appointed to the Conservatoire Jacques Thibaud in Bordeaux and then in 1994 when he succeeded his master Alexandre Lagoya as a guitar professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (cnsmdp).

Numerous works for guitar and concertos have been dedicated to Olivier Chassain by Georges Delerue, Edith Lejet, Stephen Dodgson, A. Ruiz-Pipo and Sean Heim among others, for his passionate advocacy of contemporary music composition. Olivier Chassain has made several recordings for different labels, among which “Almost a song” (Metronome recordings) was awarded the “Choc” of Le Monde de la musique, and “Eventail” was given Classica magazine’s highest distinction.

May 2008