Maxime Desert

Maxime Desert lives music as he sees human relationships, with a taste for shared, intense and honest emotions. A chamber musician at heart, he has found in the viola a resonant brother, full and warm. Serving contemporary creation as well as the great repertoire, he is soloist with the Ensemble Multilatérale and principal viola with the Casco Phil orchestra. A member of Boho Strings, he takes part in the dynamic performances of the BISS Quartet/Boho International Strings Soloists Quartet, and in 2019 he will be creating the New Gates Trio with Matteo Cesari (flute) and Aurélie Saraf (harp) for the Sonic Postcards project, short pieces of 10 to 30 seconds each, open to composers wishing to share their sensations of a world suspended by the health crisis. Maxime Desert plays a 1764 François Lejeune viola, known as the 'Vieux Paris'. He teaches at the music school in Wiltz, Luxembourg.

As violist with the Quatuor Tana between 2010 and 2019, Maxime Desert recorded with these pioneers of contemporary creation the complete quartets of Jacques Lenot, Steve Reich and Philip Glass, each of which was praised by the press, Choc Classica and Coup de cœur de l'Académie Charles Cros. He has forged close ties with daring composers such as Yann Robin, Raphaël Cendo, Franck Bedrossian, Yves Chauris, Ondrëj Adamek, Karol Beffa, David Achenberg and Philippe Boesmans. Concerts, prestigious festivals and a cascade of premieres punctuate his tours and encounters. In 2017, his performance of Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel with the ensemble Les Métaboles, "subtly measured in dynamics, colour and vibrato" (Michèle Tosi, Res Musica), was a turning point in his approach to music. The desire to explore new horizons began to assert itself, following his own rhythm through increasingly personal projects.

After taking his first steps on the piano, entering the Valenciennes Conservatoire at the age of 7 and winning a gold medal as a violinist at the Douai Conservatoire, Maxime Desert went on to blossom as a violist at the Conservatoire National de Région de Rueil-Malmaison in 2005, in the class of Françoise Gneri, with whom he won the Prix d'Excellence. He also benefited from the guidance of Tasso Adamopoulos and Pierre-Henri Xuereb. He obtained his Master's degree with Great Distinction from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels in 2010, studying with Thérèse-Marie Gilissen. Throughout his apprenticeship and his career as a musician, he has benefited from the advice of masters such as the Jerusalem Quartet, Alfred Brendel, Gabor Takacs, Andrés Keller, Nicholas Kirchen and David Alberman. His wealth of experience has enabled him to collaborate regularly since 2019 with Vienna's illustrious Klangforum.