Jacques Forestier, Violinist

Canadian violinist Jacques Forestier has quickly garnered international attention after winning the 2024 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in Hannover, Germany at age 19. A CBC Music “Top 30 Under 30” and “Violin Channel Artist,” Forestier has performed with orchestras including the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and Western Michigan Symphony, among others. He has appeared recently at important festivals including Chamberfest Cleveland and West, the Perlman, Gstaad Menuhin, and Victoria Summer festivals, Edmonton Chamber Music Society, Music Toronto, and Music From Angel Fire. 

Jacques Forestier’s first full season includes débuts with the philharmonics of Calgary, Bremen, Dresden, and Duisburg, as well as chamber orchestras of Potsdam, Neuss, and Württemberg Heilbronn. Forestier will make débuts at important venues and festivals such as the Cologne Philharmonie, Heidelberg Fruhling, The Library of Congress (DC), the Musicus Society Hong Kong, Festspiel Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Flagey (Brussels), Ottawa Chamberfest, among others to be announced. 

The Warner Classics label will soon be releasing Forestier’s début album “Song and Dance,” recorded in Berlin with pianist Boris Kusnezow.

Forestier is currently pursuing Professional Studies at the Kronberg Academy with Antje Weithaas, having previously studied with Pamela Frank and Shmuel Ashkenasi at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He is currently mentored by renowned artist manager Sonia Simmenauer under her Zukunfts.musik initiative of Impressariat Simmenauer. Forestier plays on a G.B. Guadagnini (c. 1765 Parma) violin on generous loan from the Fritz Behrens Foundation.