INTERVIEW
When and where was your first concert with the MCO? In Landshut, autumn 1997 – it was the first concert the MCO played.
The first piece of music you fell in love with: Beethoven’s violin concerto, 4 seconds of crackling silence of the vinyl LP, and the timpani opening…
Briefly describe what a concert day involves for you. I always try to have a nap in the afternoon. It allows me to start the day again, recover from any tiredness, clear the mind and increase the focus. It’s like hitting ‘reset’.
What is the best thing about being a musician? The best thing is the renewed challenge every project brings – it means we never stop learning. It’s a life of movement and questioning. Being a musician never feels to me like a profession in the ‘work’ sense of it, it’s an extension of my childhood dream.
What is your most memorable moment with the orchestra? 1998, early in MCO history, a 3-month tour, 65 performances of Don Giovanni in Lyon, Milano, Brussels and Tokyo. I think it was like an incubator for MCO, the intensity of the first musical steps with Daniel Harding, the kaleidoscope of artists, venues, audiences, and the opera itself. This is one of the milestones in MCO history, a memorable tour.
BIOGRAPHY
Geoffroy Schied received his musical education in the Conservatoire National Superieur de Paris. He became a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, where he met not only Claudio Abbado, but also young musicians who wished to continue to play together even after reaching the youth orchestra’s age limit. In 1997, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra was founded by Claudio Abbado and these young musicians and Geoffroy has been a member of the orchestra since then.
Geoffroy also plays with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Opera de Paris. Since the revival of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2003 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra as its core, Geoffroy has performed with both ensembles at the Lucerne Festival each summer.
