A spirit of insatiable curiosity, a taste for risk-taking, an immoderate appetite for the entire cello concerto repertoire, with no boundaries or quarrels between choirs, a commitment to citizenship and an unconditional love of nature – these are undoubtedly the qualities that set this brilliant Franco-Swiss performer apart from an early age.

Voted ‘Instrumental Soloist of the Year’ at the 2003 Victoires de la Musique Classique awards, she has since performed in recital in Asia and Europe, and has been a guest with the most prestigious orchestras, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Orchestre National de Metz, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic.

She is also a privileged interpreter of contemporary composers and is developing a policy of commissioning works.

She has recorded several complete works for Aparté that have won international acclaim: Bach, Britten, Schumann, Fauré, Chopin, Brahms, CPE Bach and Strauss, as well as thematic albums such as Dreams, Alvorada and Exils, which have won her a huge following.

With a passion for encounters, she regularly shares the stage with Lambert Wilson, hip-hop dancer Ibrahim Sissoko, choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, star dancers Hugo Marchand and Ludmila Pagliero, and bossa nova star Toquinho.

In 2005 she founded the Pulcinella Orchestra, which she directs from the cello and with which she explores the repertoires of the 17th and 18th centuries on historical instruments.

After a double album devoted to Boccherini in 2019, recorded with Sandrine Piau, Ophélie Gaillard and Pulcinella enjoyed widespread public success with a double Vivaldi I colori dell’ombra album recorded at the height of the health crisis with mezzo-sopranos Lucile Richardot and Delphine Galou.

A sought-after pedagogue, she has been a professor at Geneva’s Haute École de Musique since 2014 and is regularly invited to give masterclasses and as a member of the jury at major international competitions (ARD in Munich, Geneva Competition, Cello Biennale in Amsterdam, Isang Yun in Korea, Bach in Leipzig…).

Ophélie Gaillard plays a cello by Francesco Goffriller 1737 generously loaned by the CIC and an anonymous Flemish piccolo cello.

Ophélie Gaillard performed at the Métis Plaine Commune festival in 2017 with Waed Bouhassoun.