Valentine Michaud

Franco-Swiss saxophonist Valentine Michaud performs as a soloist on international stages. She has won numerous prizes, including the Prix Credit Suisse Jeunes Solistes in 2017 and the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2020, and is one of only two artists to have won both. The first saxophonist to appear as a soloist with the Vienna Philharmonic, she made her debut with the orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Lucerne Festival in 2022. She is a regular guest soloist with orchestras such as Philzuid, MDR Sinfonieorchester, United States Navy Band, Moscow Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, State Cappella St Petersburg and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. In the 2024/25 season she was soloist in residence with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande for more than 25 concerts, and made her debut under Daniel Harding with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in the premiere of Jesper Nordin’s concerto, with Emmanuel Michaud as visual soloist. She recorded Anders Hillborg’s Peacock Tales with Philzuid under Duncan Ward. Working regularly with composers to expand the saxophone repertoire, she premiered Théo Schmitt’s saxophone concerto in 2025 and premieres Christoph Croisé’s in 2026.

Drawn to collaboration with other art forms and to new concert formats, she co-founded the transdisciplinary collective SIBJA, winner of the Prix Nico Kaufmann, where she shares artistic direction with her brother Emmanuel Michaud and designs the costumes. Passionate about chamber music and new work, she has performed since 2015 with pianist Akvilė Šileikaitė, with whom she released the album “Beyond the Wall” in 2023, and since 2022 with her brother, percussionist Gabriel Michaud, with whom she recorded “Oiseaux de Paradis” in 2024, which was warmly received by critics. Two albums are due in 2027: “Paris Ville Lumière” with Gabriel Michaud and “Sirènes” with Akvilė Šileikaitė.

Valentine Michaud is a graduate of HEMU Lausanne, the Université Paris Sorbonne and the ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts). She has taught at the Conservatoire Populaire de Musique de Genève since 2017 and has been a guest professor at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester since September 2024.