biographY
“A recording [Calace's Preludes] that I find beautiful. At first, I could not even believe that there was only one mandolin. Never could I have imagined that a mandolin could sound like a thousand fingers! And this composer is absolutely amazing. This CD enchanted me!”
PASCAL DUSAPIN
“Paradis Latin was looped between Santa Barbara and Yosemite National Park (5h!)
It is a pleasure to hear the artists' joy in making music together. The quality of their playing and recording is remarkable!”
EMMANUEL PAHUD
Julien Martineau is one of a handful of mandolin players worldwide to perform with leading symphony orchestras.
At the age of nineteen Julien Martineau won the Giuseppe Anedda Prize at the 1998 Varazze International Competition in Italy
A guest soloist at the ‘Victoires de la musique classique’ he made his debut with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Rinaldo Alessandrini, with whom he subsequently recorded the Vivaldi and Calace (Naïve) concertos. In 2021 he was appointed Honorary Director of the world’s largest and most prestigious organization devoted to the mandolin, the Classical Mandolin Society of America. In October 2022, he chaired the jury for the International Mandolin Competition in Tokyo.
His concert appearances with – among others – the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the Ensemble Pygmalion, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Heilbronn, and the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, have enabled him to highlight not only the virtuosity but also the delicacy of his instrument, as have his recitals at the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Grand Théâtre de Provence, the Halle aux Grains in Toulouse, the Victoria Hall at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the ‘Folle Journée’ in Nantes, Russia and Japan. Together with his chosen artistic partners, he has presented groundbreaking new ideas: for example, with pianist Bertrand Chamayou, a programme of mandolin sonatas from the 18th century to our own time. He has accompanied the singers Natalie Dessay, Sabine Devieilhe, Thomas Hampson, Florian Sempey and Laurent Naouri, and in 2016 he gave the premiere of the Mandolin Concerto dedicated to him by its composer, Karol Beffa. He has also recorded all of the Preludes by Raffaele Calace – the solo mandolin equivalent of the Caprices of Paganini – presenting them on Radio France 2 in a broadcast hosted by one of his regular collaborators, the pianist and composer Jean-François Zygel.
The end of 2023 will see the opening of The Mandolin of Liv, a musical by Thierry Huillet and Clara Cernat, with Julie Depardieu (Privat/Gallimard).
His fascination with the instrument extends to a keen interest in how it is made. For some years Julien Martineau has been working with Savarez, the world leader in guitar string manufacture, with the aim of developing new mandolin strings using the latest technological innovations: the instrument he plays was devised and built for him by one of the great stringed instrument makers of the present day, the Canadian Brian N. Dean.
Artistic Director and founder of the Toulouse Festival, Julien Martineau was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2024.He was also awarded the Déodat de Séverac Prize by the Académie du Languedoc.
Professor of Mandolin at the Conservatoire de Toulouse, Julien Martineau also holds a master in Musicology from Paris IV-Sorbonne and is a diploma in Music History from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.