„Xavier de Maistre is a virtuoso of the highest order, profoundly musical and capable of realizing a remarkable range of nuance.“
— Gramophone
Xavier de Maistre is one of today’s leading harpists and a profoundly creative musician. As a fierce champion of his instrument, he has broadened the harp repertoire, commissioning new work from composers. He also creates transcriptions of important instrumental repertoire.
This musical vision has led him to work with conductors including Sir André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Philippe Jordan, James Gaffigan, Bertrand de Billy, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Daniel Harding, Susanna Mälkki, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. He has been invited by orchestras such as Chicago, Montreal, City of Birmingham, NHK, Swedish and Finnish Radio Symphony orchestras; Los Angeles, London, St Petersburg, Oslo and China Philharmonic orchestras; Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. In his native France he has worked with Orchestre de Paris, the national orchestras of France and Lyon; the philharmonic orchestras of Radio France, Monte-Carlo, Montpellier, Lille and Nancy; and recitals in Paris and Lille operas, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice, Poitiers and Avignon, among other places.
Parallel to his orchestral concerts, de Maistre is passionate about chamber music and regularly puts together original recital projects. In 2020 he starts a new collaboration with tenor Rolando Villazón, with whom he records a project of South American folk songs for Deutsche Grammophon. 2021/2022 performances include such venues as Abu Dhabi Classics, Hamburg ElbPhilharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfurt Stuttgart Liederhalle and Graz Musikverein. Over the last seasons, he worked with flamenco and castanet legend Lucero Tena in a programme of Spanish repertoire, touring major venues in Europe, Japan and China, and releasing an album (Sony Classical, 2018). He also regularly works with Diana Damrau, Arabella Steinbacher, Daniel Müller-Schott, Baiba Skride, Antoine Tamestit, Mojca Erdmann, and Magali Mosnier.
In Summer 2020, he takes up residency at Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. As a soloist, he has been a frequent guest of many high-profile festivals, including Rheingau, Salzburger Festspielen, Wiener Festwochen, Verbier, Budapest Spring, Würzburg Mozartfest and Mostly Mozart in New York.
De Maistre has been an exclusive Sony Music artist since 2008, when he recorded his first album, Nuit d’Etoiles, dedicated to Debussy, winning an Echo Klassik Award as Instrumentalist of the Year. Further releases included Hommage à Haydn (2009), Aranjuez (2010) and Notte Veneziana (2012), featuring significant Baroque repertoire. Recent releases have included a DVD of performances with Diana Damrau, his transcription of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.19 in F major, K.459, with MozarteumSalzburg under the baton of Ivor Bolton, Moldau (2015), solo harp pieces by Slavic composers, and La Harpe Reine (2016) with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie. His last album “Christmas Harp” (October 2021) features paraphrases and fantasies of famous Christmas carols as well as melodies by Schubert and Tchaikovsky.
Born in Toulon, de Maistre studied the harp with Vassilia Briano at his local conservatoire, before perfecting his technique with Catherine Michel and Jacqueline Borot in Paris. He also studied in Sciences-Po Paris and then at the London School of Economics. In 1998 he was awarded First Prize (and two interpretation prizes) at the prestigious USA International Harp Competition (Bloomington) and became the same year the first French musician to be admitted at the Wiener Philharmoniker. He has taught at Musikhochschule in Hamburg since 2001.
He plays on a Lyon & Healy harp.