Gabriel Esteban
About
Born in Geneva, Switzerland, cellist Gabriel Esteban grew up in a musical family. He studied with François Guye at the Geneva Conservatory and with Clemens Hagen and Giovanni Gnocchi at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg. He also received precious advice from cellists such as Christophe Coin, Marc Coppey, Enrico Dindo, David Geringas, Thomas Grossenbacher, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Maria Kliegel, Reinhard Latzko, Philippe Muller, Raphaël Pidoux, Troels Svane, István Vardái and Wen-Sinn Yang.
Gabriel Esteban was awarded the 2nd prize at the David Popper International Cello Competition in Hungary, several 1st prizes at the Swiss Youth Music Competition, where he also received the prize of the SUISA Foundation for the best interpretation of a work by a Swiss composer and is also a prizewinner of the Enrico Mainardi Cello Competition in Austria. He was invited to perform at the Lavaux Classic Festival with Tedi Papavrami, the Kronberg Academy with Jehye Lee and István Várdai, the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, the Seiji Ozawa International Academy Switzerland, the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in Japan and regularly performs recitals in Switzerland, France, Austria, Italy and Bulgaria. In 2019, he went on tour as a soloist with the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra in some of the biggest concert halls of Switzerland such as Zürich's Tonhalle Maag and Bern's Kultur Casino.
Gabriel Esteban is the cellist of the Aurora Piano Quartet, the first piano quartet in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium. The ensemble performs year-round in Switzerland, France, Belgium, Austria and regularly works with members of the Artemis, Danel, Ébène, Takács and Ysaÿe quartets, the Trio Wanderer as well as with Nobuko Imai, Jean-Claude Pennetier and Pavel Vernikov. Prizewinner of the Illzach International Chamber Music Competition and the Orpheus Chamber Music Competition, the ensemble went on tour in Brazil and Argentina. The Aurora Piano Quartet was invited to perform at the International Piano Festival La Roque d'Anthéron, the Monnaie de Munt, the Swiss Chamber Music Festival, the Académie Villecroze and the Porrentruy Piano Festival.
Gabriel Esteban was principal cellist of the Verbier Festival Orchestra and the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra. He played under the baton of conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Iván Fischer, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Manfred Honeck, Paavo Järvi, Jesús López-Cobos, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, Seiji Ozawa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, András Schiff, Michael Tilson Thomas, Pinchas Zukerman and is a regular member of several Swiss orchestras.
He currently performs on a 1690 Giovanni Grancino cello generously loaned to him by the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.
Native of Geneva, of Anglo-Franco-Cuban origins and born into a family of musicians, I am a professional cellist constantly in search of new artistic ideas. I love the social aspect of my job, to share our emotions in such a unique way as well as its communal and educational aspect, the need to teach music to young people and the joy it can bring to people experiencing difficulties.
I base my teaching on my ability to adapt to each student: to their level, their age, their qualities and weaknesses, but above all to their personal wishes. It is vital for me to remain flexible in my methodology and especially not to impose a single strategy on all my students. For those who wish, I am also passionate about styles other than classical music and would love to wander out of the "usual pattern" by exploring different genres.
Since 2014, I have had the chance to teach cello to students of very contrasted ages and levels, in four different languages and at varied intensities, but always with one constant: I have always found the greatest pleasure!