“My congratulations on your remarkable talent and personality. With heartfelt thanks”. Henri Dutilleux
“For Valentine Buttard, who has shown such understanding of the essential lines of my work and expressed them so skilfully. With sincere appreciation”. Henri Dutilleux
“The two cycles by Philippe Hersant, Éphémères and Steps, have found in Valentine Buttard an artist who serves the music with brio“. Loïc Chahine in Le Babillard
“And above all, bravo for the expressive and poetic quality of your interpretations, showing complete mastery”.Philippe Hersant
“Sensitive, colourful playing, of delicate refinement”. (Die Neue Ruhr/Neue Rhein Zeitung)
“She guides the listener through highly contrasted musical realms, and her virtuosity wins the audience over”.(WAZ, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung)
The young concert pianist Valentine Buttard, recognized by leading contemporary composers for her discerning interpretations, has been committed to performing and sharing their music for
several years now. Her memorable encounter in 2012 with the composer Henri Dutilleux, a few months before his death, who expressed his gratitude and enthusiasm for her interpretation of his
Trois Préludes, encouraged her in this endeavor.
As early as 2002, she won a first prize at the International Competition of Contemporary Music in Fribourg, Switzerland, and in 2009, as a laureate of the Ile de France International Piano Competition, she received a special prize for her interpretation of a Prélude by Henri Dutilleux.
Valentine Buttard’s interest and talent for contemporary music inspired her to devote her first solo album to the work of Philippe Hersant, with whom she had already worked for several years and whose cycle for piano, Steps, is dedicated to her. The CD, Piano Works / Philippe Hersant, appeared in 2015 under the NoMadMusic label and, in May 2016, received Four Diapasons in the magazine of the same name. For the recording and production of the album, Valentine Buttard benefited from grants awarded in October 2014 and January 2015 by the Fonds Fravanni under the auspices of the Fondation Roi Baudouin (Belgium), as well as grants support from the Fondation d’entreprise Safran pour la musique (Paris).
Born in 1986 in Belfort, France, Valentine Buttard studied with Rena Shereshevskaya in Colmar and continued her studies at the Musikhochschule of Hanover, Germany (2005 – 2015) with
Vladimir Krainev, Matti Raekallio, and Roland Krüger. Working with Igor Tchetuev also contributed to her musical development. She brilliantly earned her solo performance and teaching degrees, as well as her Master of Solo Performance degree, with the highest honors.
Valentine Buttard performs regularly in France, Germany, and Switzerland. She has been invited to play in prestigious festivals such as the Lille Piano(s) Festival, the Festival International de Besançon, the Festival International de Colmar, the Festival International de piano de Saint-Ursanne/Switzerland, at Musicales de Compesières /Geneva, Switzerland, in the Jeunes Talents concert series in Paris, and at such venues as Piano Salon Christophori in Berlin/Germany, the Scènes nationales of Quimper and Montbéliard, and the Bechstein Centrum in Hanover and in Berlin/Germany. She is also regularly invited to play in the Salon de Musique en Franche Comté concert series.
She has been a soloist with orchestra with works by Mozart, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Mendelssohn, with the Ensemble Instrumental La Follia, the Collegium Musicum de Mulhouse, the
Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comté, and, in a series of concerts in Switzerland, with the Orchestre Symphonique du Jura Suisse under the direction of Facundo Agudin.
As a chamber musician, Valentine Buttard performs in particular with her 4-hands piano duet partner Elena Bobrovskikh (Duo Barcarolle), with the soprano Sophia Körber (Duo Limette) as well as with the trombonist Mikael Rudolfsson.
Valentine Buttard lives and teaches in Berlin. In addition to her activities as a musician, since 2009 she has been involved in an intense practice of meditation, yoga and mindfulness, and in 2016-2017 she undertook a training program in this domain (BSR: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction). She is now able to transmit this practice to other musicians as well as non-musicians in classes, training sessions and workshops.