Jean-Guihen Queyras is recognized as one of the most compelling performers of Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo cello music, but also a multifaceted explorer of contemporary classical music, alongside his activity as an educator and member of chamber music ensembles. In all these capacities, we will meet him at the Kalamata International Music Days and at the Ecclesiasteion of Ancient Messene, on Saturday, August 30, 2025. In this unique concert featuring works by Bach, Saariaho, Ravel, and Villa-Lobos, the cellist will appear with mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska, Ionian Kadesha, and the cello students from the masterclass already taking place in Kalamata.
As you return to Kalamata for yet another time, what memories and expectations do you bring from previous years?
I have wonderful memories from recent years in every respect. The conditions under which the seminars take place are excellent, thanks to the very positive work of the Conservatory Director Stathis Gyftakis and the entire team. The audience is very kind, and of course, Kalamata is a place full of charm, absolutely magical.
How did you initially find your way to Kalamata and the International Music Days?
I was first invited by the artistic director Indira Ramatulla, who happened to be my student! The first time I came mainly to perform, and since last year I started coming for educational reasons as well.
Masterclasses are becoming increasingly popular. What do they offer young musicians, listeners, and the public?
Masterclasses are a good opportunity to give young musicians a boost, and the presence of the audience can be truly very positive, because there is, in a way, a triple relationship between teacher, audience, and student, and this can be very stimulating, because the student plays not only for the teacher, but also for the audience.
How do you select the participants?
We received many applications with videos, and the level was absolutely exceptional, truly brilliant. The selection criteria are, of course, the playing level, but also, as a teacher, you need to feel if you will be able to genuinely help someone well, so there must also be a chemistry. Thus, when watching the candidates’ videos, you also look for personalities with whom you believe you will have a good discussion and a good exchange.
You are involved in historically informed performance and contemporary music. How does this influence your teaching?
Indeed, throughout my life, I have enjoyed playing very different repertoires, because I believe they complement each other, and this is, of course, something I also transmit to my students—this passion for very different repertoires, which I believe is key to a vibrant performance.
Can you give us an example?
Sometimes when you play works from the classical repertoire, you start to get confined by habits and rules that have been established over time. But if you then play a piece like Bernd Alois Zimmerman’s Four Short Studies—one of them is very slow, like a melody but with very large intervals—large leaps from one note to another, then you pay more attention to the space between the notes, which are now far apart. So when you play Beethoven or Bach again, you now have a much broader understanding of intervals—the relationships and tensions between notes. This is what we often say, that music is what lies between the notes.
Here, now, in the literal sense of the interval.
Exactly.
As you mentioned Bach, you recently re-recorded the Suites for Solo Cello many years after your first recording. In the meantime, you contributed to the creation of a dance work with this music. How did this dance experience affect your interpretation?
I re-recorded Bach’s Suites seventeen years after the first recording, and the experiences I gained in those 17 years are now part of how I play them today. And specifically, the major project with dance, with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and the Rosas company, indeed had a significant impact on my playing, as I had to interact on stage with dancers who were very close to me and reacted to my playing, while my playing also reacted to their movements. This happened over 120 times—as many times as the performance was presented during our collaboration. This continuous exchange, however, even if it wasn’t with a musician, brought about changes: in tempos, in colors, and made me start to see the pieces as chamber music. This is certainly something that had a great impact on my interpretation and was one of the reasons I wanted to record them again.
Did spending some years of your childhood in a Mediterranean city shape you in any way?
I traveled a lot in my childhood because my family traveled a lot. I was born in Montreal, when I was five I went to Algeria, and when I was eight we arrived in Provence in southern France. And indeed, all these different encounters with different cultures and even languages are part of my identity. And we know, at least since Leonard Bernstein, that language and music are very closely linked, so this has an influence on who I am as a musician.
How did you choose the concert program for Ancient Messene?
It is very inspiring to think about the possibility of playing in Ancient Messene, where history is present and almost overwhelming. I chose a program that includes instrumental ensembles of various sizes. I will play solo, and a duo with violin and a duo with voice, and then we will play in a cello ensemble, like a cello orchestra. All these different dimensions will give the listener the opportunity to experience the space of Ancient Messene in a different way.
Also, some of the compositions are over 300 years old, like Bach’s Suites, and others, like Kaija Saariaho’s piece, which combines cello with voice, are recent pieces, about 40 years old. Thus, the different periods of the repertoire will interact with the sense of time that Ancient Messene gives us.
Is playing chamber music with musicians you barely know or don’t know at all, and having to prepare in a few days, more of a challenge or a pleasure?
It is both a challenge and an inspiration to play chamber music with musicians with whom you don’t usually play. It is very refreshing when all participants are open to new ideas, new suggestions, new impulses, and thus a very vibrant musical experience can emerge.
Do you like any other music besides classical?
I am a big fan of jazz—jazz from different eras. Of the great blues masters of the 1960s, but also more recent artists. In recent years, I’ve even had the opportunity to play more and more with the wonderful saxophonist from France, Raphaël Imbert; we’ve worked a lot on improvisation. So, yes—if I had to mention some of the great names from the past, I would definitely mention Art Blakey, because I’m crazy about percussion. Also Oscar Peterson. And of course, Stéphane Grappelli, because he is the great master of strings from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s.
