Camille Berthollet

Born in 1999, the Franco-Swiss musician Camille Berthollet began cello studies at the age of four in the town of Annecy in the Rhône-Alpes, entering the Geneva Conservatorium ‘Musimax’ program when she was ten. At twelve, she was admitted to the Lyon Conservatorium in the class of Augustin Lefebvre, obtaining honours with the unanimous congratulations of the jury for her music diploma final exam in 2013.

That same year, she was admitted to the Bachelor degree of the Geneva University of Music in the class of François Guye. From the age of ten, Camille was repeatedly awarded the First Prize of the Vattelot-Rampal Competition in Aix-les-Bains and Paris. In 2010, 2012 and 2014 she also won the First Prize of the Swiss Youth Competition for Music and in December 2012 claimed the First Prize of the Popper Competition in Paris. In May 2013, she appeared with the orchestra of the Beauvais Cello Festival.

Camille has taken part in prestigious masterclasses with teachers including Philippe Muller, Frans Helmerson, Gustav Rivinius, Leonid Gorokhov, Susan Moses, Denis Severin, Marcio Carneiro and the Tokyo String Quartet.

From the age of eight, alongside the cello, Camille undertook violin classes with Hong Anh Shapiro in Geneva. These studies were further enriched by courses with Mimi Zweig at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana University (where she won the Concerto Competition in 2011), as well as courses at the Zakhar Bron School of Music in Switzerland, and in Vienna at the Amadeus School.

In 2012 she was laureate of the Tournoi International de Musique (TIM) competition in Paris. In August 2013, she was awarded 2nd Prize in the prestigious Mary Smart international competition in New York in the under-sixteen category, and in 2014 the 1st prize of the Talents for Europe competition in the under-seventeens. She has performed on Stradivarius and del Gesù violins in Europe, Asia and the United States.

With her older sister Julie, Camille appears often in various duo combinations (violin / cello, two violins, cello / viola, violin / viola). They have won prizes in duo including the First Prize with Special Mention in the Schweizerischer Jugendmusikwettbewerb competition (SJMW) in 2011, 2013 and 2015. They have also qualified together for the finals of the Tournoi International de Musique Competition – the youngest duo ever selected. With their quartet they were invited to open for the Tokyo String Quartet in Geneva during that ensemble’s farewell tour. The sisters were invited to play at the Summit Music Festival in New York in August 2013 as well as for the No.1 classical radio station in New York, WQXR. She is the recipient of a scholarship from the Friedl Wald Foundation.

Camille shot to fame in France and abroad in 2014, at the age of 15, when she was hailed winner in the first edition of the young talent competition Prodiges (Prodigies), produced by Shine France, televised on France 2 and watched by 4.5 million viewers. She has since signed as an exclusive artist to Warner Classics, with the label releasing her premiere recording in October 2015. On the album, entitled Prodiges (Prodigies), she is accompanied by her sister, pianist Guillaume Vincent, and the Auvergne Orchestra, with Gautier Capuçon as special guest.