Julien Abbes
Julien began playing the bassoon at the Cannes Conservatory in Jacky Maingaud's class. He was introduced to orchestra at a very early age with the Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur Regional Orchestra under the direction of Philippe Bender. He then entered the Paris Conservatory in Laurent Lefèvre's class, where he obtained his diploma in musical studies. After a year of advanced training with Geneviève Grisenti at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory in Gilbert Audin's class, and also took early bassoon classes with Giorgio Mandolesi. He has participated in masterclasses with Carlo Colombo and Frank Morelli. A member of the Le Balcon ensemble since its creation, Julien is fond of contemporary repertoire. He has created numerous solo and ensemble pieces by young composers, such as Cras Lucebit by Pedro Garcia-Velasquez for bassoon and electronics at the Musique sur Ciel festival and Bobba, an opera by Arthur Lavandier at the Philharmonie de Paris. Julien is also a member of the French bassoon quartet Les Francs Bassons, which aims to introduce the instrument and develop the repertoire for this formation. For example, the group was invited to premiere a piece by Alexandre Ouzounoff at the International Double Reed Society congress in Tokyo in 2015. Julien has also worked with the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Les Siècles orchestra, the Ensemble Intercontemporain with conductors Daniele Gatti, Myung Whun Chung, Yakov Kreizberg, François-Xavier Roth, Matthias Pinscher, etc. He has also played as a soloist the concertos of Mozart, Hummel and Weber as well as the Strauss double concerto for clarinet and bassoon.