Christophe Girard

Accordion / Composer

Participated in the 2023 edition

Christophe Girard established his identity and maturity at a very early age through his music and his various ensembles. He is already an accomplished artist, offering a well-rounded instrumental style that is at once sensitive, fluid, and dynamic, alternating between intensity and refinement.

He studied classical accordion at the Dijon Conservatory and then at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, where he earned his advanced degree with highest honors. During his classical training, he was a finalist in the international competitions in Arrasate and Castelfidardo, a prize winner at the Max Francy Competition, and recipient of the Sacem Prize. His solo repertoire ranges from contemporary pieces for accordion (Denisov, Busseuil, Hosokawa, Rojko…) to transcriptions (Scarlatti, Bach…) and Russian works (Kussiakov, Zubitski, Zolotarev…).

In 2009, he founded the Exultet Trio, with which he won second prize for composition and second prize for best group at the Jazz la Défense competition that same year. In 2010, he was named a laureate of the European Jazz Competition in Burghausen, thereby opening the festival as the opening act for Roy Hargrove’s All Star Big Band.

In 2012, he formed the duo Smoking Mouse with Anthony Caillet, which won the Jazz à Lagny competition, and in 2013, the Melusine Quintet—combining the trio and the duo—which in turn won the Jazz à Saint-Germain-des-Prés competition in 2015. The Melusine Quintet was selected for the 2019 Jazz Migration tour.

He joined the Campagnie des Musiques à Ouïr, directed by Denis Charolles, in 2013; collaborated with the Camargo dance company alongside Claude Barthélémy (former artistic director of the ONJ); and continues to work as a composer through the various ensembles he leads as well as through commissions.

He is a co-founder of the Babil collective and the Babil label.

He collaborates with numerous artists, ensembles, and companies: Les Yeux Noirs, l’Arcal, the Orchestre de Bretagne, the Ensemble Justiniana, 2E2M, Denis Charolles, Claude Barthélémy, Kiko Ruiz, Ensemble Justiniana, Ensemble Op’cit, Barcella, Camargo, Huges Maillot, Aymeric Avice, Raphael Quehenen, Thibault Cellier, Gueorgui Kornasov, Matthieu Metzger, Anthony Caillet, Simon Tailleu, Jean Marc Padovani, Jean Marc Philips, Guillaume Saint James, Marie Salvat, Francesco Filidei, Guillaume Bourgogne....

He teaches at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Chalon-sur-Saône.