The French organist and harpsichordist, Yves Rechsteiner, began his musical activity in a rather traditional way: he studied piano with the family, then discovered the organ in the church. Pierre-Alain Clerc opens it for him during adolescence with the Baroque repertoire, which lead him to be interested in the harpsichord. In 1991, he took First Prize of organ (with François Delor) and of harpsichord (with Christiane Jaccottet) at the Conservatoire de Genève. The same year he was allowed to join the circle of Musicens Juventus, which was selected from all over Europe. He improved his playing thanks to the teaching of pianoforte with Andreas Staier, organ with Guy Bovet and the art of basso continuo with Jesper Christensen at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The participation in international competitions brought him several awards: him: prize-winner of the Harpsichord Competition of Brugge, Organ Competition of Speyer, the Competition of Musical Performance Geneva, of the Spring of Prague, etc.
In parallel to his activity as a concert performer, Yves Rechsteiner was appointed in 1995 as professor of basso continuo and responsible for the department of early music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon. He then became responsible in the higher education for a class of accompaniment on early keyboards, while leading the development of the department is recognition for the richness of his teaching activity. He has been invited as a soloist to many festivals, and shares his activity between recitals of organ, harpsichord or playing in small ensembles. He collaborated with artists like Chiara Banchini, François Fernandez, or Michel Corboz. For a few years, he has developed personal musical projects, which make his recordings regularly greeted by the press (Alpha-Production, Paris). Each project is the fruit of an intensive research work on varied repertories and reveals rare or little known instruments. |