Arthur Bedouelle

Arthur Bedouelle was born in Paris and had a very important musical experience when he was twelve years old:

− I played in a youth orchestra with the Jeunesse Musicale de Suisse, and discovered the joy of playing symphonic music and sharing this experience with such a large group of people. I remember having felt like a fish in the water from the moment I sat on stage, and since then, I haven´t looked back.

The musician who probably inspired and influenced him the most in the process of becoming a musician was Alexander Zemtsov, his teacher in London.

− He is someone for whom music making is completely natural, an instinctive and sensitive player always looking for freedom and easiness. I also have my heroes of the old times, such as Christian Ferras, a violinist whose expressivity is unmatched by anyone I can think of. Artists like those should, I believe, be our beacon in a milieu that is unfortunately sometimes getting more concerned with control and an artificial ideal of perfection than by generosity and expression.

− A place where everyone is young, fresh and enthusiastic

Arthur joined the Oslo Philharmonic in 2014. He loves seeing the sparkling eyes of his colleagues in the morning while arriving at work:

− It´s a privilege that I believe few share in this world. One of the most wonderful things in the Oslo Philharmonic is that people keep their enthusiasm and their will to play, every day, for their whole career. One of my colleagues told me one morning that she was as happy to play after twenty years as she was the first day she sat in the orchestra. I think this is truly wonderful: it´s a place where everyone is young, fresh and enthusiastic.

He enjoyed a warm welcome on his first day in the orchestra:

− The first day of my trial, my section had put a box of chocolate on my chair, to welcome me. To be unconditionally trusted from the first day is something very rare, a leap of faith that takes a lot of courage and generosity. From the moment I first played here, I have felt surrounded by loving people and trusted both as musician and as a human being. A place where the social aspect and the generosity of people is so intimately linked to the quality of the music making is a hope for all of us and I don't think anymore that one can separate the human qualities of an individual or the way he behaves with his colleagues, with what he has to give on stage.

− We sometimes forget to listen by ourselves

Richard Wagner is one of Arthur’s favorite composers, though he rarely gets to play his music with the orchestra:

− My first experience in orchestra was a performance of Tristan and Isolde with Kirill Petrenko, in Germany. That piece is associated with some of my best memories and I hope to play it again. I am also very fond of Sibelius, who is for some reason terribly underrated in my home country.

Arthur thinks curiosity is an important key to great experiences in the concert hall:

− We are all very keen on listening to things we know already, but to discover something new is in itself the greatest joy. I also think that with an omnipresent media and every concert and artist being reviewed, hyped and criticized all the time, we sometimes forget to listen by ourselves. It´s very often the case that people ignored by the media have as much, or more, to offer than our music “stars". My advice would be as follows: don´t only go for the big names: lots of them are unnecessarily inflated and some obscure musicians you may have never heard about are absolute geniuses!

When he´s not playing, Arthur loves being with people – or books.

− I am a very social person, I love company, making friends and sharing moments with others. I am also an avid reader, and find that the experience of a truly great book has a lot to do with listening to a great piece. I also play chess way too much, a virus I contracted a few years ago. Luckily and despite a lot of studying, I am still terrible at it.