Louis Rodde

Born into a literary and artistic family, cellist Louis Rodde trained with Philippe Bary and Philippe Muller before studying at the Paris Conservatoire with Roland Pidoux and Xavier Phillips, in Leipzig with Peter Bruns and in Salzburg with Clemens Hagen.

A passionate chamber musician, he has performed in the Musikverein (Vienna), the Konzerthaus (Berlin) the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Philharmonie, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord and the Auditorium du Musée du Louvre (Paris), Forbidden City concert hall (Beijing), Herkulessaal (Munich), Salle Molière (Lyon), Wigmore Hall (London), Salle Bourgie (Montreal), Frick Collection Auditorium (New York), CCK (Buenos-Aires), Flagey (Brussels), Sydney Opera. He has appeared at numerous festivals, including the Schwetzingen, Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, the Heildelberger Frühling, the Folle Journée in Nantes, Tokyo and Warsaw, Newport Festival (USA), Canberra Festival (Australia) and the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d’Anthéron, Prades, Chambord, Colmar, Besançon… He has performed as soloist with the Neue Philharmonie Westphalen, the Polish Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de Caen, the Orchestre des Jeunes d’île de France, Lebanon Philharmonic, Mulhouse national orchestra, and the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie.

In 2010, he co-founded the Trio Karénine, with whom he met great artists during his years of study: musicians from the Ysaÿe Quartet, violist Hatto Beyerle, pianists Jean-Claude Pennetier, Menahem Pressler and Ferenc Rados. The trio went on to win numerous prizes in Vienna, Heerlen and Paris, before winning the ARD competition in Munich in 2013. With pianist Paloma Kouider and, since 2023, violinist Julien Dieudegard, he has toured the finest stages on five continents.

Over the years, he has forged close ties with pianists Gwendal Giguelay and Anne le Bozec, violinist Alexandra Soumm, clarinetists Annelien Van Wauwe and Raphaël Sévère, singer Noëmi Waysfeld and cellist Juliette Salmona, the Zaïde quartet, and the Carousel variable-geometry ensemble, of which he is cellist.

His eclectic discography has received critical acclaim (Choix de France Musique, Diapason d’or, Choc Classica, Gramophone, Pizzicato ...): Fauré and Ropartz sonatas with pianist Gwendal Giguelay (NoMadMusic - 2016); With the Trio Karénine for the label Mirare, Schumann Trios (2016) Ravel, Fauré and Tailleferre (2018), a Slavonic Shostakovich, Weinberg, Dvorak album (2019), a program of transcriptions of works by Schönberg, Liszt and Schumann (2021), followed in 2023 by an album devoted to trios by Dvorak and Suk, and an opus featuring works by Benoît Menut and Philippe Hersant. He collaborates with soprano Karen Vourc’h on a mirroring of the worlds of Schubert and Duke Ellington (B records - 2019) , with cellist Paul Colomb for the electronic cello ensemble « Bleue Quintet » (Mirare - 2024), with pianist Anne Le Bozec and tenor Cyrille Dubois on a Waughan-Williams album (2026). The Trio’s new recording, around Tchaïkovsky, is released in November 2025.

Louis is a Professor of Chamber Music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, and shares his passion for teaching with numerous universities and conservatories in Europe, the USA Canada and Australia, in the context of master-classes. He is also involved with the Esperanz’Arts and Fous de musique associations in France, and travels to Haiti, Senegal and Lebanon to play for those who are not fortunate enough to live with music on a daily basis.

Louis Rodde has received support from the Accenture Foundation and the Académie musicale de Villecroze. He is a laureate of the Cziffra Foundation and an ADAMI revelation. He plays a magnificent cello by Francesco Goffriller on loan from the Fondation Culture et Musique under the aegis of the Fondation de France, and a bow by Pierre Simon.