Damien Ventula
Cellist
A confirmed soloist, Damien Ventula regularly plays concertos for cello and orchestra dedicated to him, including the one by Charles Chaynes which he premiered in 2017 in Paris with the Orchestre Colonne conducted by Laurent Petitgirard, as well as the one by Thierry Huillet which he premiered in Bordeaux in 2020 and recorded in his latest album “Concertos” released in May 2021. He has recently performed with the Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse conducted by Gilles Colliard and the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie conducted by Michel Tilkin. He was also the soloist of a concertante piece for cello and quintet by Gustavo Beytelmann at the end of 2021, and is regularly invited to prestigious festivals: Festival de Prades Pablo Casals, Konzerthaus Berlin, Solent Music Festival in Lymington, Festival Piano Pic, Niagara Music Festival.
Noted for his temperament and sensitivity, Damien Ventula is from 2017 to 2021 “Génération Spedidam”, and receives the Prix Déodat de Séverac awarded by the Académie du Languedoc. He was also nominated at the “Victoires de la Musique” in the category of Instrumental Soloist Revelation in 2005, and was a laureate of the Navarra Competition in 2008, as well as of several foundations (Marcel BleusteinBlanchet, Piatigorsky, Singer-Polignac).
Damien Ventula plays a cello by Antoine Médard from 1675, entirely assembled in bare and spun gut, playing all repertoires from the baroque period to the present day. In chamber music he has played with such renowned artists as Christian Zacharias, Raphaël Oleg, Denis Pascal, Michel Lethiec, Louise Jallu, Stéphanie Paulet, Matthew Truscott, Steven Devine, Sam Haywood, Régis Pasquier and the Talich Quartet.
Born in Toulouse into a family of musicians, Damien Ventula studied cello from an early age with great masters: Lluís Claret in his hometown, Bernard Greenhouse and Laurence Lesser in Boston and Boris Pergamenschikow in Berlin. Keen to pass on the knowledge of the latter, he teaches at the Conservatoire de Versailles and from 2013 to 2017 had a class at the prestigious Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin.
Among other recordings, he recorded in 2016 the complete music for piano and cello of Gabriel Fauré with Nicolas Bringuier for Klarthe Label – distributed by Harmonia Mundi -, and “Arc en cello” (ed. “la Nuit Transfigurée”), a disc devoted to contemporary Toulouse composers.
His latest recording with the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra conducted by Gilles Colliard, is devoted to the concertos of Camille Saint-Saëns and Thierry Huillet for Klarthe Label.