A violist of remarkable sensitivity, Gatien Leray possesses a natural ability to create an emotional connection with his audience.
Passionate about both the solo and chamber music repertoire, he has enriched his experience through work with Tabea Zimmermann, Nobuko Imai, Alexander Gordon, and Hartmut Rohde, taking part in academies such as Villecroze, Chigiana, and Stauffer. In 2025, he was selected for the prestigious Verbier Academy Soloist program in Switzerland, where he further refined his artistry with Lawrence Power, Máté Szűcs, Isabel Charisius, and Antoine Tamestit.
He has been invited to festivals including Un Été en France, the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Festival International de Colmar, the Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Festival Pablo Casals, Incontri in Terra di Siena, and the Festival de Pâques. He has shared the stage with renowned musicians such as Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Clemens Hagen, and Daishin Kashimoto in venues including Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Rosey Concert Hall in Rolle, La Grange au Lac in Évian, and the Abbey of Saint-Michel de Cuxa in Codalet.
In chamber music, he draws inspiration from Miguel da Silva, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Valentin Erben, and Bruno Giuranna. Principal viola of the Haute École de Musique de Genève orchestra, he has performed under distinguished conductors such as Péter Eötvös, Heinz Holliger, Pierre Bleuse, and Markus Stenz. During the flute–chamber music semifinal of the 77th Geneva Competition, he performed Chant de Linos by André Jolivet. In 2026, he joined the Musethica International program, founded by violist Avri Levitan, committing alongside other musicians to giving concerts in numerous countries for audiences who do not usually have access to classical music.
Gatien began studying the viola at the age of seven in France at the Conservatoire of Thionville. At seventeen, after obtaining a high school diploma in economics and social sciences, he entered the class of Miguel da Silva at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in 2022. He then joined the International Menuhin Music Academy in Rolle and continued his training within both institutions. For two years, he studied with Gérard Caussé and Ivan Vukčević and performed with the Menuhin Soloists in Switzerland and Italy. In 2024, he obtained a Master’s degree in Specialized Musical Performance (Soloist) from the HEM, receiving the highest possible mark for each of his master’s recitals as well as the Albert Lullin Special Prize. Convinced that a career as a soloist and chamber musician must also involve the transmission and teaching of music, he completed a Master’s degree in Music Pedagogy at the HEM.
Gatien holds the Diplôme d’Artiste Interprète from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, which he prepared with Françoise Gnéri and Jean Sulem.
Second prize winner of the Tonetti Foundation International Competition, he has benefited from the support of the Hirschmann Foundation and the Rahn Kulturfonds (Switzerland). He is a semifinalist of the Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition in Prague and a quarterfinalist of the Geneva Competition.
Gatien is a laureate of the Gautier Capuçon Foundation and the Safran Foundation. He plays a viola made by the italian-american luthier Francis Kuttner (2015), on loan from the El Pasito association and a bow by Georges Tepho (2021).
Since September 2025, he has been refining his artistry as Artist in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (Belgium) under the guidance of Miguel da Silva.
