Gilles Grimaître is a swiss pianist / improviser / performer / composer
He studied the piano at the Hochschule der Künste Bern with Prof. Pierre Sublet where he received his Master Performance diploma with distinction. He also studied the organ with Pascale Van Coppenolle and composition with Xavier Dayer. He was scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt/Main for the academic year 2013-2014. He attended lessons from notorious pianists such as Michel Dalberto, Nicolas Hodges, Florence Millet, Ueli Wiget, Hermann Kretzschmar and Hideki Nagano.
Gilles Grimaître performs regularly as soloist, chamber musician, and with ensembles/orchestras such as Ensemble Contrechamps, le Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain (NEC), Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Proton, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Bochumer Symphoniker.
He is a member of Collegium Novum Zürich, L’Imaginaire, pre-art Soloists, neuverBand and founding member of the Ensemble Lemniscate, HYPER DUO with the percussion player Julien Mégroz and the duo Orion with the cellist Elsa Dorbath.
In 2012 he took part in the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, playing amongst others the piano solo part in Charles Ives’ Symphony no 4 conducted by Peter Eövtös. He recently performed as a soloist with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich under the baton of Herbert Blomstedt. In 2019 he will premiere the new piano concerto by Hanspeter Kyburz, especially written for him.
He performed in many festivals such as DAVOS Young Artists in Residence, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Tzlil Meudcan (Israel), Thailand International Composition Festival, Musikprotokoll, Ruhrtriennale, Festival ManiFeste, ppIANISSIMO Festival, Slowind Festival (Slovenia), SONEMUS Festival (Bosnia-Herzegovina).
Gilles Grimaître specializes in the accompaniment with vocalists, working often as an opera accompanist. He is also an active free improviser and plays in the experimental band [bleu].
Gilles Grimaître won the first prize at the 2013 Nicati competition for contemporary music and received scholarships from the Marescotti Foundation, the Irène Dénéréaz Foundation and the Gabriele De Agostini Foundation.