Program and Artist Biography

Nicolas Courtin / Jean-François Fourichon / Michel Grizard / Philippe Rayer

The Versailles Guitar Quartet was founded in 1987 with a debut concert in Salle Gaveau in Paris under the auspices of Diapason magazine. In 1991 the quartet took first prize in the International Guitar Quartet Competition in Völklingen, Germany.

The quartet has developed a  varied repertoire by creating new transcriptions of music written during the Renaissance to the present day, for which it has received praise from such composers as Joaquin Rodrigo and Ferenc Farka. The quartet also commissions new works from composers such as Félix Ibarrondo and Franz Constant. Two CDs recorded in 1992 and 1993 received five stars from Diapason magazine. Recently the quartet has released two additional CDs of music for guitar quartet and orchestra: works by Georges Delerue, Federico Moreno-Torroba, and Franz Constant with the Sudetes State Philharmonic Orchestra of  Walbrzych in Poland, and a concerto by Leonardo Balada with the Barcelona Symphony-Catalonia National Orchestra, recorded for the Naxos label.

The Versailles Guitar Quartet has performed in France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, England, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, and Switzerland. Since 2003, Nicolas Courtin, Jean-François Fourichon, Michel Grizard, and Philippe Rayer have participated in the celebrated Folle Journée of Nantes as guest soloists.

Since 2001 the Versailles Guitar Quartet has been editing a collection of original and transcribed works for Dobermann-Yppan Edition (Canada).