Artists

Extraordinary saxophonist, Valentine Michaud combines musical finesse with an extraordinary artistic vision. Winner of numerous awards, in 2020 she won the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award. The first saxophonist to appear as soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic, Valentine makes her debut with the Vienna orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Lucerne Festival in 2022. Valentine is a regular guest soloist with renowned orchestras such as Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Philharmonie Zuidnederlands, MDR Sinfonieorchester, United States Navy Band, Moscow Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, State Cappella St Petersburg and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. For the 2024/25 season, Valentine will be soloist in residence with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande for over 25 concerts. She will also make her debut under the baton of Daniel Harding with Swedish Radio for the premiere of Jesper Nordin's concerto. 

Convinced of the richness of collaborations with other art forms and seeking to develop new concert formats, Valentine is co-founder of the transdisciplinary collective SIBJA, in which she is artistic director with her brother Emmanuel Michaud, performs as an instrumentalist and designs costumes. 

Her duo Akmi, with pianist partner Akvilé Sileikaité, has been performing around the world since 2015. Together, they regularly commission works from composers, and their debut album "Beyond the Wall" was released in November 2023 for Avie Records. Since 2022, Valentine has been performing as a duo with her brother Gabriel Michaud on percussion, on unique programs combining creations, transcriptions and arrangements. Their first album, "Oiseaux de Paradis", will be released in September 2024. 

Based in Switzerland since 2010, Valentine is a graduate of the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, the Université Paris IV Sorbonne and the Zurich University of the Arts, and has been teaching at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique de Genève since 2017. 

Modern and imaginative saxophonist, Nicolas Prost blends classical and contemporary styles with improvisation, voice, gesture and electronics. Prize-winner of prestigious Conservatoire de Paris and several international competitions of chamber music, he has appeared as soloist with the Strasbourg Philarmonic Orchestra, The Capitol Orchestra of Toulouse, London European Camerata, the Mexican Philarmonic, the Symphony Orchestra of Bangkok, the Montreal EMC, the Swiss-Romand Orchestra, among many others. In addition to his appointment as principal saxophonist for the Concerts Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris, he often performs as a chamber musician on international stages with the chamber ensembles Variances, Saxiana and BorderJazz. 

His rich discography has been positively reviewed by specialized press. He is actively involved in the development of the saxophone repertoire and has presented World Premiere performances of over 140 new pieces in different settings – including pieces by Connesson, Escaich, Pécou, Bacri, Yared, Zavaro, Hersant, Beffa, Naon, Lauba – but also crossover litterature by Shorter, D’Rivera, Marsalis, Mintzer, Patitucci, Maalouf, Portal, Potter, Carter, Helliwell, Tortiller, Herbin. 

Nicolas Prost is also very active in the domain of music pedagogy and has also composed a series of pieces for young saxophonists including the Saxophone Go ! Method (co-authored with Stéphane Colin). In addition to his « Saxiana » collection for Billaudot, the « Adolphe Sax Album » series for Lemoine, Nicolas Prost is an active researcher about forgotten repertoire for saxophone, he has published 3 books : Saxophone et pédagogie, à vous de jouer; Saxophone à la française ; and Very Essential Repertoire for saxophonists (in 2 volumes). Nicolas Prost is the saxophone professor at the Conservatoire de St-Maur in Paris. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses and lectures at prestigious universities throughout the world, including the famous Juilliard School.