Xavier de Maistre

“Xavier de Maistre is a virtuoso of the highest order, profoundly musical and capable of realising a remarkable range of nuance.” 
Gramophone

Xavier de Maistre is one of today’s leading harpists and a profoundly creative musician. As a fierce champion of his instrument, he has broadened the harp repertoire, commissioning new work from composers. He also creates transcriptions of important instrumental repertoire.

Xavier starts his 2024/25 season as an artist-in-residence of Sinfonieorchester Basel, by opening their season under Ivor Bolton and performing multiple concerts throughout the whole season. Other season’s highlights include performances with Seattle Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tan Dun, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Nathalie Stutzmann, Korean National Symphony with David Reiland, and China National Symphony Orchestra. His Serenata Latina duo with Rolando Villazón leads him to major venues and festivals including Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Die Glocke in Bremen, Heidelberger Frühling, Teatro Cultura Artistica in Sao Paulo and Shanghai Grand Theatre, and his highly creative solo recital programme to prestigious series of Stanford Live in the USA and Meisterkonzert of Zentrum Paul Klee in Switzerland.

He is regularly invited by first-class orchestras across the globe: Chicago, Montréal, City of Birmingham, Swedish and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras; Los Angeles, London, St Petersburg, Oslo and China Philharmonic Orchestras; Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo; working with conductors including Sir André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Philippe Jordan, Bertrand de Billy, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Daniel Harding, Susanna Mälkki and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

As a recital soloist, he has been a guest at many top festivals, including Rheingau, Salzburger Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Verbier, Budapest Spring, Würzburg Mozartfest and Mostly Mozart in New York. He is passionate about chamber music and regularly puts together original recital projects, including numerous collaborations with highly versatile artists like tenor Rolando Villazón, flamenco and castanet legend Lucero Tena, Diana Damrau, Arabella Steinbacher, Daniel Müller-Schott, Baiba Skride, Antoine Tamestit, Mojca Erdmann or Magali Mosnier.

Xavier has been an exclusive Sony Music artist since 2008, when he recorded his first album, Nuit d’Etoiles, dedicated to Debussy. Further releases include Hommage à Haydn (2009), Aranjuez (2010), Notte Veneziana (2012), Moldau (2015), and La Harpe Reine (2016) with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie. His album Christmas Harp (October 2021) features paraphrases and fantasies of famous Christmas carols. He recorded a highly-acclaimed Serenata Latina album with Rolando Villazón (Deutsche Grammophon) in 2020. In autumn 2022, his latest CD dedicated to Russian music was released, featuring Reinhold Glière's famous harp concerto and Alexander Mosolov's forgotten concerto, accompanied by WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln under the baton of Nathalie Stutzmann.

Born in Toulon, Xavier studied the harp with Vassilia Briano at his local conservatoire, before perfecting his technique with Catherine Michel and Jacqueline Borot in Paris. He also studied in Sciences-Po Paris and then at the London School of Economics. In 1998 he was awarded First Prize (and two interpretation prizes) at the prestigious USA International Harp Competition (Bloomington) and became the first French musician to be admitted at the Wiener Philharmoniker that same year.

He has taught at Musikhochschule in Hamburg since 2001.

He plays on a Lyon & Healy instrument.