Geister Duo

David Salmon piano, Manuel Vieillard piano

David Salmon and Manuel Vieillard have been forming the Geister Duo for almost 10 years, and are now considered one of the most promising piano duo of their generation.

In 2019, they won the 2^nd prize at the International Schubert Competition for piano duet in the Czech Republic and the 1^st prize and audience prize at the International Four Hands Piano Competition in Monaco. In 2021, they won the first prize at the ARD Munich International Competition, a real consecration for the piano duo, as well as 5 special prizes. David Salmon and Manuel Vieillard began their collaboration while students at the CRR in Paris (Regional Conservatoire in Paris).

The Duo had the opportunity to perform Bach concerto BWV 1060 with the WDR Orchester Köln under Cristian Macelaru, Mozart concerto for Two Pianos KV 365 with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Radoslaw Szulc as well as with the Philharmonisches Orchester der Stadt Ulm and Felix Bender.

In recital, they are invited to perform at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the ElbPhilharmonie Hamburg, the NDR Funkhaus in Hanover and the Robert-Schumann Saal in Düsseldorf, as well as at the Seine Musicale, the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris, the Bozar in Brussels, the Raderbergkonzerte at the Köln Radio, the Festival de la Roque d’Anthéron, at Piano à Lyon, Arts & Lettres in Vevey, Switzerland, as well as at the Folles Journées in Nantes and in Japan. In 2024 and 2025, the Duo will be the guest in recital, of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, ElbPhilharmonie Hambourg, Salle Bourgie Montréal, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, Schubertiade Hohenems in Austria, La Folle Journée in Nantes and Warsaw, La Roque d’Anthéron, Bordeaux Auditorium, etc…

Their encounter gave rise to the desire to work in depth on the duo repertoire, not as two soloists meeting for a concert, but as a real chamber music ensemble. Each completing his solo piano studies, one at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin, the other at the CNSMD in Paris (Paris Conservetoire), from which they graduated with flying colours and both won international competitions, they perfected their duet skills with Emmanuel Strosser at the CRR, and then finally devoted themselves to it full-time with Claire Désert in the master’s degree in chamber music at the CNSMD in Paris.

Invited as an ensemble in residence to the international festival of La Roque d’Anthéron in 2018 and 2019, they have also benefited from the advice of Christian Ivaldi and the Trio Wanderer.

Committed to the dissemination of contemporary repertoire, they were invited in 2019 to the Académie de Villecroze by Jean-François Heisser and Jean-Frédéric Neuburger for masterclasses on works of the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2020 they joined the prestigious Tal & Groethuysen duo class in the Postgraduate course at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where they further developed their research as a duo.

The Geister Duo’s last recording devoted to Debussy and Stravinsky was released early 2023 (Mirare/Bechstein).

Their next project will be dedicated to the ambitious to record Schubert complete music for piano four-hands and will be released in 2025 (Mirare).

The Geister Duo is supported by the ADAMI and the Safran Foundation for Music.