Fenris Quartet biography

The Fenris Quartet was born in 2012 from the meeting of four friends at the Lyon CNSMD and their passion for chamber music. During their studies, they trained with professors and great chamber musicians Agnès Sulem (Rosamonde Quartet) and Yovan Markovitch (Ysaye Quartet and Danel Quartet).

They will enrich their repertoire and their interpretation with other outstanding personalities such as Dominique Lonca (Debussy Quartet), Marc Danel (Danel Quartet), Isabelle Charisius (Alban Berg Quartet) but also by participating in public masterclasses with members of the Cambini Quartet and Danel Quartet. Eager to improve even further, they joined in 2016 the quartet class of Luc-Marie Aguera (Ysaye Quartet) at the CRR of Paris.

Winner of international competitions such as the “Tremplin” competition organized by the Paris Philharmonic in 2016 as well as the AEMC International Chamber Music Competition in Italy in 2019, the quartet is also selected for concerts with the music organization Musethica in Berlin for a series of Masterclasses and concerts in November 2020.

Curious and wishing to engage in international musical creation, the quartet to participate in many creations says that “Pause” by Irish composer Sam Perkin, “Nuo Dance” by Chinese composer Yiqing Zhu and more recently recorded two albums with the composer Lucien Guérinel in 2022 and Simone Tolomeo in 2023.

Attaching great importance to transmission to the younger generations, the Fenris Quartet regularly collaborates on projects in primary schools, in particular with the Fractales association and does not hesitate to offer activities at festivals or in partnerships with town halls.

The Fenris Quartet has already performed in many festivals and venues such as Arpèges in Gascony, The Royans-Vercor chapels, Sanary en Musique, Musique en l’Ile, Listen to Nature, Société Générale sponsorship (Pierreclos castle), Musical University Hourtin Médoc, Ecole Centrale Lyon, Goethe Institut Lyon, Prieuré de Chirens or the prestigious great hall of the Paris Philharmonic.

Pierre Alvarez

Coming from a family of musicians, Pierre began playing the violin at the age of 5 with his father before entering Olivier Grimoin's class at the CRD of Aulnay sous bois where he won his prize brilliantly at unanimously with the congratulations of the jury.

Thereafter, he met Jean Lénert at the Schola Cantorum before entering the Lyon CNSMDL in the class of Marianne Piketty with whom he obtained his master's degree with honors in 2017.

Curious to discover new musical horizons, Pierre decides to do a Soloist and Chamber Music Masters at the Horschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in the class of Barnabas Kelemen and Harald Schoneweg from whom he learns Hungarian musical traditions and German.

Pierre discovered the string quartet at the age of 15. Very quickly fascinated by this formation and its repertoire, he decided to create the Fenris Quartet with whom he has shared the stage since 2012.

He is the winner of several national and international competitions and performs regularly as a chamber musician and soloist in Europe.

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Camille Labroue

Camille started playing the violin at the age of 9 at the conservatory of La Ciotat in the class of Régine Devert. In 2007, he continued his studies at the CRR of Aix-en-Provence in the class of Marie-Laurence Rocca where he obtained in 2009 his Diploma of Musical Studies (DEM). That same year, he joined Jean Lenert's class at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where he obtained his Higher Diploma in 2011.

As of 2012, he successfully presented the entrance examination to the Lyon CNSMD in the class of Marianne Piketty and her assistants Manuel Solans and Dominique Lonca. In 2017, he will complete his five years of study by obtaining his Master's degree there.

Within this institution, he developed a passion for chamber music and more particularly the string quartet. It is therefore quite natural that in 2012 he founded the Fenris Quartet with which he still performs today.

Camille’s other great passion is transmission. This is what led him to successfully present the entrance examination for the Diploma Training for the Certificate of Aptitude (FDCA) and to obtain his Master's degree there in 2020.

Since 2021, he has been teaching at the CRR in Châlon-sur-Saône.

He also collaborates with many orchestras in France such as the Lyon Chamber Orchestra, the Lyon Opera, the Dijon-Bourgogne Orchestra, the Saint-Etienne Opera, the Marseille Opera, and the Toulon Opera.

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Vincent Verhoeven

Vincent discovered a passion for music very early on. He began the viola at the age of 8 at the CRR of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, a conservatory in which he also obtained a Trombone Improvement Prize.

In 2012, he joined the class of Françoise Gnéri, Nicolas Mouret and Dominique Miton at the Lyon CNSMD.

During 2015, he founded the Yako Quartet and pursued with this ensemble a Master's degree in Chamber Music at the Hochschule in Munich, in the class of Christoph Poppen and Hariolf Schlichtig, before becoming a ProQuartet resident in 2016. His commitments lead him to perform in many concerts in France and abroad: Chad, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Switzerland...

He has played in festivals such as the Quartet Night, Quatuor à Bordeaux, Musique sur Ciel, la Belle Saison, Les Musicales de Vollore, Festival Debussy, Palazzo Ricci, Sanary en Musique, Cordes en Ballades, Vue d ensembles, Music at Fival, Printemps musical de Lyon, and also at the Philharmonie de Paris, Salle Molière in Lyon, or even on France Musique in collaboration with artists such as Hervé Billaut, Marie Chilemme, Dana Ciocarlie, Bill T jones , Yovan Markovitch, Mieko Miyazaki, Isabelle Moretti.

At the same time, he performed with the Lyon Opera, the Lyon national Orchester, the Saint-Étienne Opera and the Toulon Opera.

He joined the Fenris Quartet in 2021.

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Florian Laforge

Born of musician parents, Florian began playing the cello in 1998. In 2006 he won a first prize at the Aix en Provence conservatory in the class of François Baduel as well as a first prize in 2009 at the Marseille conservatory in the class of Odile Gabrielli.

After perfecting his skills with Patrick Gabard at the Lyon conservatory, in 2011 he was unanimously accepted at the Lyon CNSMD in the class of Anne Gastinel, Emmanuelle Bertrand and Edouard Sapey-Triomphe.

First prize Pierre Barbizet at the Bach competition of the city of Marseille, laureate and prize "musicians between war and peace" of the Maurice Ravel international academy, "Talent d'or 2018" of the Rotary Club, also graduated from the Lyon CNSMD with a master's degree Mention Very Good unanimously by the jury, Florian is then led to perform in several festivals in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, China, Japan, Greece, Armenia, the United States or even in Brazil.

During his musical and artistic path, Florian had the chance to follow the advice of Roland Pidoux, Christoph Henkel, Philippe Muller, Ll uis Claret, Eric-Maria Couturier, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Henri Demarquette, Gary Hoffman, of the Wanderer trio, of the Ysaye, Danel, Rosamonde and Alban berg Quartets. He notably forged his artistic experience by sharing the sonata stage with Alexandre Kantorov, Guillaume Bellom, Théo Foucheneret but also with the Fenris Quartet (founding member), the Varèse Quartet, the Lyon Orchester Chamber, the Cannes Orchester, the Lyon Opera, the Lille National Orchester and the Lyon National Orchester. We recently heard Florian perform as a soloist in works by Fauré, Elgar, Popper, Bruch and Edith Canat de Chizy with the Lyon Chamber Orchester, the Lyon Conservatory Orchester and the Grand Chalon-Bourgogne Orchester.

Also attentive to pass on his passion for music, holder of the Certificat d’Aptitude, Florian teaches cello and chamber music at the Saint-Egrève conservatory. He was also invited by the School of Music of the State of São Paulo and the University of Shanghai to give master classes.

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