Jean-Luc Votano

Jean-Luc Votano was born in 1982. He began playing the clarinet at the age of 4 with his father, before going on to study at the Mons and Versailles conservatories.

He is the winner of numerous international competitions: voted Best Young Soloist of the Year in 2004 by French-language public radio stations (i.e., in Belgium, France, Canada and Switzerland), and nominated several times for the Octave de la Musique. At the age of 20, he was appointed principal clarinet with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège. At the same time, he pursued a concert career from an early age, performing his first solo concert at the age of only 7. He regularly performs some of the repertoire's finest concertos alongside the world's most prestigious conductors including: Armin Jordan, Christian Arming, Yoel Lévy, Louis Langrée, Pascal Rophé, and Yuri Simonov. His passion for chamber music has also led him to practice his art alongside musicians such as François-René Duchable, Claire-Marie Le Guay, François Chaplin, David Lively, Daniel Blumenthal, Sophie Karthäuser, Marie Hallynck, Boris Belkin, Olivier Charlier, Albrecht-Laurent Breuninger, Geneviève Laurenceau, Tatiana Samouil, Arnaud Thorette, Francesco Solombrino, Jean-Eric Soucy, Marc Grauwels, Les quatuor Debussy, Danel, Parisii, as well as the Fine Arts Quartet.

In 2006, Jean-Luc Votano made his New York debut at Lincoln Centre. In November 2009, he was invited by the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo, where he premiered Magnus Lindberg's concerto. He performs regularly in France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Israel, Belgium, Germany, and the US.

Jean-Luc Votano's extensive repertoire includes some 100 concertos and chamber music works, as well as several major works from the contemporary repertoire. Numerous Belgian composers such as Claude Ledoux, Robert Janssens, Max Vandermaesbrugges, Viviane Mataigne, and Stéphane Orlando have also dedicated some of their works to him.

At the mere age of 29, his discography already includes four major CDs: “De Si De La" (JPH production), concertos by Mozart, Weber and Rossini (released by Cyprès) with L. Langrée and the OPRL, "intégrale Bruch" (released by Cyprès) with Arnaud Thorette, Johan Fargeot, P. Rophé and the OPRL (awarded a Diapason D'Or in December 2009, and rated CD of the month by classic FM in England), as well as a CD devoted to A. Tansman. In 2012, a disc of Schuman's works is set to be released by Cyprès, featuring Arnaud Thorette and Johan Fargot.

Since 2007, Jean-Luc Votano has been a member of the Abocalips reed trio with Sébastien Guedj (Hb) and Joanie Carlier (Fg). Jean-Luc Votano has been a teacher at the Namur Royal Higher Institute of Music and Pedagogy since 2003. Jean-Luc Votano plays using the "Divine" Bb and A (by Buffet Crampon).