Principal clarinettist (Super soloist) of the Opéra National de Paris orchestra for 40 years, Philippe Cuper is a regular guest with international orchestras: Berlin Philharmonic, Milan Scala, Bavarian Radio, Czech Philharmonic, Moscow Symphony, Sinfonia Varsovia, Orchestre de Paris, National de France, Ensembles Contemporains à Paris, Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the London Philharmonia... conducted by masters Sawallisch, Ozawa, Abbado, Maazel, Mehta, Boulez, Prêtre, Dohnanyi, Barenboim, Gergiev, Salonen, Conlon, Chung, Jordan, Gustavo Dudamel, Ricardo Chailly...
Born in Lille, Philippe Cuper won international competitions in Munich, Prague, Viotti, the Slovak Prize, the Geneva Medal, Orvieto, and the Mravinsky Medal in St. Petersburg, after studying musicology at the Sorbonne and the Conservatoire (CNSM) in Paris, where he was awarded first prize for clarinet (unanimously nominated 1st).
His teachers included Gilbert Voisin, a disciple of Louis Cahuzac, Guy Dangain, Guy Deplus and Henri Druart, and he received advice from J.Lancelot, A.Boutard and S.Drucker (of the New York Philharmonic) as well as Jean Hubeau , Pierre and Nelly Pasquier (in chamber music).
Solo clarinet with the Orchestre Mondial des Jeunesses Musicales, he became solo clarinet with the Lamoureux Orchestra in Paris at the age of 20.
He has collaborated with composers such as Messiaen (for his Quatuor), Françaix (CD recording of his concerto under his direction), Sauguet, Mihalovici, Rosenthal, Berio, Denisov, Komives, Hersant, Zygel, Bacri, Connesson, Girard, Maratka, etc... He has premiered concertos by Bacri, Stankovitch and Gronych (with Giora Feidman and Eddie Daniels) in Tel Aviv, as well as quintets by Paquito D'Rivera in Boston.
He has taught at the Conservatorio Superior de Aragon (Spain), the Conservatoire National de Région de Versailles, and gives master classes at the Universities of Chicago, Cleveland, Mexico City, Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Canberra, Jerusalem and Moscow. He also teaches at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and the Schola Cantorum.
With some forty CDs to his credit (“Choc” du Monde de la Musique, nominated for the “Victoires de la musique”), he plays with numerous quartets: Talich, Kocian, Takacs, Enesco, Parisi, Benaim Trio Wanderer, pianists : P. Badura-Skoda, P.L. Aimard, M.W. Chung, L. Cabasso, F. Chaplin, violinists : R. Ricci, A. Brussilovsky, O. Charlier, L. Korcia... the Octuor à vent de Paris, which he founded in 1986.
