Raphaël Feuillâtre

Raphaël Feuillâtre was born in 1996 in Djibouti, on the northeastern coast of Africa, and raised in the small city of Cholet in western France. Although his parents were not musicians, they recognised and encouraged the boy’s clear gift for music after he was given a plastic guitar at the age of seven. Two years later, Raphaël enrolled at the Cholet Conservatoire, where he received his first guitar lessons from Hacène Addadi. The learning process continued during Feuillâtre’s high-school years in Nantes, where he received invaluable lessons from Michel Grizard at the Conservatoire de Nantes. From 2015 to 2020 he pursued advanced studies at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris, where his teachers included Roland Dyens and Tristan Manoukian. He has also worked for a number of years with Judicaël Perroy. Feuillâtre made his international breakthrough in 2018 as winner of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) International Concert Artist Competition. He had already been tipped as a rising star in Europe following his victory at the 2017 José Tomás Villa de Petrer International Guitar Competition in Valencia and earlier prize-winning competition performances elsewhere in Spain as well as in France, Portugal and the Czech Republic. His progress around the competition circuit introduced him to many outstanding players and teachers; his José Tomás and GFA prizes, meanwhile, included opportunities for him to record solo recital albums under studio conditions and embark on concert tours of Europe, Brazil, Argentina, the US and Canada. His career was given a further boost when he was honoured by being selected as one of French performing rights association ADAMI's "classical discoveries" of 2021. He signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Deutsche Grammophon in September 2022.