Born in 2000, Élise Bertrand first studied piano, then violin, before turning to composition.
After studying at the CRR of Toulon, she entered the CRR of Paris at the age of 14, where she studied violin with Suzanne Gessner and composition with Nicolas Bacri.
At the CNSMDP, she earned four master’s degrees: in violin, chamber music in sonata duo with Gaspard Thomas, orchestration, and writing, receiving separate prizes in Harmony, Counterpoint, Fugue and Forms, and 20th- and 21st-century Writing.
In 2022, she became Artist-in-Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Augustin Dumay’s class, while also pursuing, from 2023 onward, an advanced third-cycle violin programme at the CNSMDP, leading to the Diplôme d’Artiste Interprète. This notably enabled her to perform as soloist with the Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire at the Cité de la Musique in Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in 2025.
Élise has won numerous prizes in violin, chamber music, and composition competitions, including Second Prize at the Ginette Neveu International Competition and the Special Prize in 2019 for the best interpretation of the contemporary work.
Nominated as “Instrumental Soloist Revelation” at the 2024 Victoires de la Musique, Élise pursues a dual career as violinist and composer, passionately championing lesser-known and contemporary repertoire, thus bringing together performance and creation.
She has been recognised for the singularity of her musical path through the support of the Gautier Capuçon, L’Or du Rhin, Safran, and Charles Oulmont Foundations. Élise and Gaspard have also been in residence as a sonata duo at the Singer-Polignac Foundation since July 2025.
A highly sought-after chamber musician, she also performs as soloist in a wide range of concertos, from Vivaldi to Szymanowski, including works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Prokofiev, Chausson, and her own compositions. She has performed these works alongside ensembles such as the ONDIF, Orchestre Vigo, Ensemble Appassionato, Orchestre de Montpellier, Casco Phil, the Mahlerian Camerata, Orchestre Colonne, Orchestre Philharmonique de Provence, Orchestre Etesias, Orchestre Silmaril, Ensemble Les Déconcertants, OLC, and the Orchestre des Nations in Switzerland, among others.
As a violinist, she has appeared on stages including the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Cité de la Musique, the Philharmonie de Paris, Salle Gaveau, Salle Cortot, La Seine Musicale, Victoria Hall in Geneva, and La Roque d’Anthéron, among others.
Élise has taken part in the Académie de Villecroze in 2019; the Seiji Ozawa and International Menuhin Music Academies in 2021 and 2022; the Académie Jaroussky in 2021–2022 as part of the Tchaikovsky class; the Stauffer Academy in Cremona with Gil Shaham in 2023; and the Académie Ravel in 2024.
Published by Billaudot and Klarthe, her works have been commissioned by ensembles, distinguished instrumentalists, competitions, and institutions, and have been featured in broadcasts on France Musique, Radio Classique, and ARTE Concert. In 2022, her Sonate-Poème, Op. 11 was awarded the medal of the Académie des Sciences, Lettres et Arts d’Arras.
Articles have also been devoted to her in Classica, Diapason, Pianiste, Classykeo, Traversières Magazine, and The Strad Korea.
Élise has been composer-in-residence at the Festival d’Auvers-sur-Oise and for the Classeek Ambassador Program, and has fulfilled commissions from the Modigliani Quartet, the ONF, Emmanuelle Bertrand, the Piano Campus, Épinal and Larrieu competitions, Augustin Dumay, Orchestre Colonne, Les Métaboles, the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, and Renaud Capuçon, among others.
Following her first two monographic albums, Lettera Amorosa and Talisman, her third album, with Gaspard Thomas, will be released in 2027.
Élise plays a Joseph Gagliano violin, Naples, 1796, generously loaned by the Fondation d’entreprise Société Générale.
She is represented by Agence Nicole Viciana.
Photography & painting: ReneMayerCohen