Viola de gamba
Salomé Gasselin, an emblematic figure of a new generation of musicians, is bringing new life to her favourite instrument: the viola da gamba. Her career has been punctuated by numerous awards, including unanimous first prize at the Gianni Bergamo Music Award 2020 in Lugano, Switzerland, and second prize at the Bach-Abel Competition 2020 in Köthen, Germany…. The French paper Le Monde listed her as one of the ‘Promises of the Year 2023’, and in 2024 she was awarded the Victoire de la Musique Classique for “Instrumental Soloist Revelation”.
Although she once believed that she would win her first victories playing rugby, Salomé quickly decided that the concert hall was her preferred arena. She studied first at the CNSMD of Lyon with Marianne Muller, then in Holland at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague with Philippe Pierlot, and finally in Austria, at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg with Vittorio Ghielmi. Alongside music, Salomé studied modern literature in Paris.
Salomé is performing in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Hamburg ElbPhilharmonie, Bozar in Brussels… and in festivals such as La Folle Journée de Nantes, the Thüringer Bachwochen, the International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron, the Festival de Chambord, the Festival de Sablé, the Chigiana Festival in Siena, the Baroque Music Festival in Avignon…
For her concerts, she has collaborated with ensembles such as Pygmalion, Jupiter, Masques, Ratas del Viejo Mundo, le Poème Harmonique, Capriccio Stravagante… In chamber music, she is joined by Emmanuel Arakélian (organ), Violaine Cochard, Arnaud de Pasquale and Justin Taylor (harpsichord), Daniel Zapico (theorbo), Paul-Antoine Benos Dijan (counter-tenor) and Kevin Seddiki (guitar and zarb). In 2025 she founds the Cairn Consort, a viol consort that focuses on a repertoire as vast as that of the string quartet, outside the box.
During the 2025-2026 season, Salomé Gasselin is performing in solo recital and in chamber music at the Philharmonie de Paris, at the MC2 Grenoble, at the AMUZ Festival, at the Konzerthaus Berlin, at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, in Wiesbaden, Germany, the MA Festival in Bruges…
Salomé Gasselin is recording with the label Mirare. Her first album, Récit, was released in 2023 and critically acclaimed. In 2025 is released her album Mystères, exploring Bach’s and Biber’s spirituality.
Salomé created the viola da gamba class of the Pierre Barbizet Conservatory of Marseille in 2021. She plays a French bass viol made by Simon Bongars in 1653.
Photo credit: Valentine Chauvin