Young Concert Artists

Excellencies,

Madam Susan Wadsworth and Members of the Young Concert Artists - Board of Directors,
Member of the Quartet Modigliani,
Distinguished Guests,

Sophie and I are delighted to welcome you to the French residence this evening. We’ve heard a lot about Young Concert Artists and the eminent role that you play in promoting talented young people. Your institution has just celebrated its 50th anniversary.

This longevity is the result of genuine vision and a patient and consistent strategy.

Thanks to the remarkable quality of your artistic selection, you have been able to establish an outstanding reputation across the USA and the world. The network that you’ve established with the most prestigious music institutions in this country has enabled you to give dozens of young musicians from all over the world the means to establish themselves in the USA and to embark on a real career.

You do these young artists a great service. When they leave the conservatory, you help them make a productive transition into the professional artistic establishment. The great alumni of Young Concert Artists include some of the most famous musicians of our time: Emmanuel Ax, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, etc.

These “great alumni” lend a certain aura to all of your artists and often open up new perspectives to the youngest artists.

France is particularly grateful to Young Concert Artists for the help you have given to so many of its musicians.

Allow me to name some of them: the pianist Jean-François Neuburger, the harpist Emmanuel Ceysson, the violinist Jean-Jacques Kantorov, the pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, and of course tonight’s performers, the members of the magnificent Modigliani string Quartet. We are delighted to be able to hear them with you. They are the perfect example of a success story: after being selected by YCA in 2006, they have performed, thanks to you, in the best concert halls in the USA and they’ve now found an American agent who will continue to promote them on this side of the Atlantic.

This wonderful enterprise wouldn’t exist without the support of all of you here tonight and I would like, on behalf of all of the French artists that you’ve supported, to express my sincere thanks to you.

I would particularly like to thank Gilan Tocco Corn, Chairman of the Washington Board of YCA, and Susan Wadsworth, Director and Founder of your organization in the USA. Susan, before I let you take the floor, I would like to express my profound admiration for your extraordinary commitment.

I wish you a wonderful evening in the company of the Modigliani string Quartet.