Anja Lechner & Francois Couturier | Tourismusverband Salzburger Altstadt

Anja Lechner & Francois Couturier

Anja Lechner: cello | François Couturier: piano | Renowned classic cellist Anja Lechner and jazz pianist François Couturier may, at first, appear to come from very different musical worlds yet they are united by their desire for crossing boundaries. Hereby their search for new sound worlds and forms of expression is not radical avant-garde but remains within existing forms. They came together in 2006 for “Nostalghia” – a stylistically open tribute to the Russian director Andrei Tarkovski – which led to the Tarkovsky Quartet which still exists today. They also took part in an improvisation project between East and West with Iranian clarinettist Mona Matbou Riahi. Their experiences went into the two duo albums “Moderato Cantabile” and “Lontano” which they perform in Salzburg.

Artist biography Anja Lechner

Cellist Anja Lechner is first and foremost a classical music star. After training with Heinrich Schiff and Janos Starker, the soloist played in the world’s big venues with various renowned orchestras and chamber music ensembles such as the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, and the Rosamunde Quartet. She frequently also premiered works composed especially for her including by composers such as Valentin Silvestrov, Tigran Mansurian and Gheorghi Arnaoudov. Yet in contrast to many classic musicians, Lechner also loves improvisation and the juxtaposition of old and new music and projects with musicians from other cultures and genres such as Dino Saluzzi, Pablo Márquez, Arkady Shilkloper and Mark Feldman have always been a part of her universal understanding of music.

Artist biography François Couturier

After classic piano and music studies, Frenchman François Couturier began his career in 1978 with his band Jazz Impression with which he made such as impression that he already went on tour with John McLaughlin in 1981. He played with the guitar great for three years which was followed with performances with the elite of French jazz from André Ceccarelli and Eddy Louiss to Michel Portal and Daniel Humair before crossing over to world music terrain from 2001 with oud player Anouar Brahem. Since then, Couturier has performed in various formations such as the quintet Passaggio, the European Jazz Trio and in duos with violinist Dominique Pifarély, pianist Jean-Pierre Chalet, countertenor Dominique Visse and, not least, with cellist Anja Lechner.