Paris National Conservatory Hires New Cello Professor

Edgar Moreau will assume the role, effective as of the new academic year in September 2023

Paris’s National Conservatory of Music and Dance (CNSMDP) has welcomed 29-year-old French cellist and alum, Edgar Moreau, to its string faculty as a new cello professor. 

Chosen out of 20 other candidates, he completed a two-part selection process, which included teaching in front of the jury and a 30-minute interview.

For one year, alongside another teacher, Moreau had been serving as an interim professor at CNSMDP, giving several masterclasses to twelve cello students who were once in the class of his predecessor, Jérôme Pernoo.

Pernoo was suspended from teaching at the school for inappropriate behavior, and following several allegations against him, is currently on trial for harassment and sexual assault.

“It’s a bit of a sensitive subject, and I tried to be as neutral as possible,” Moreau said of the situation regarding Pernoo. “I’m neither a judge nor a lawyer. I understand that there are relationships with Jérôme Pernoo that have been woven in previous years and I’m not here to imitate his pedagogy,” he explained. “I want to breathe new life.”

Born in 1994 in Paris, Moreau began cello lessons at age four and piano at age six. When he was 11 years old, he gave his orchestral debut with Turin’s Teatro Regio Orchestra.

Between 2008 and 2013, he studied cello at CNSMDP with Philippe Muller and with Frans Helmerson at the Kronberg Academy. His other mentors included Gary Hoffman, Lynn Harrel, David Geringas, Claire Désert, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, and Andras Schiff.

Moreau’s accolades include first place at the 2014 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, plus prizes at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition and the 2009 Rostropovich Cello Competition.

His concert engagements have included Musica Viva Orchestra, Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de France at the Theatre des Champs Elysées, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and many more. 

His collaborators include the Ebene Quartet, Renaud Capuçon, Nicholas Angelich, Jean-Frederic Neuburger, and Khatia Buniatishvili. His brothers are violinists Raphaëlle Moreau and David Moreau, and pianist Jérémie Moreau. 

Often performing with pianist Pierre-Yves Hodique, he has released albums on record labels including Warner Classics and ECHO Klassik. Moreau plays a 1711 David Tecchler cello.

“There is a kind of heritage, of identity that matters to me,” he told France Musique of his appointment. “I left [CNSMDP] just 10 years ago and symbolically, entering it as a teacher, starting this adventure and trying to build excellence, is something I am extremely proud of.”