Sandrine Tilly

Born in Tours, Sandrine initially studied flute with Isabelle Ory before enrolling at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris aged 17, from where she graduated with the “premier prix à l’unanimité” in both flute (with Pierre Yves Artaud) and chamber music (with Christian Lardé and David Walter). Her other mentors include Patrick Gallois, Michel Moraguès, Aurèle Nicolet and Andréas Adorjan, as well as the baroque specialist Philippe Allain-Dupré.

As a concerto soloist Sandrine has performed regularly with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (including concertos by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Takemitsu, Nielsen and Ibert), the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra in Venezuela and the Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse, with whom she recorded works for flute and orchestra by Aimé Kunc, and Dorothy and Carmine de José Serebrier. She has also appeared as soloist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Tours, Orchestre de la Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt and the Orchestre Symphonique de Larà.

An early interest in orchestral music led Sandrine to join the Orchestre Français des Jeunes directed by Marek Janowski and the Académie du XXème siècle directed by Pierre Boulez. She then worked regularly with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Paris and the Ensemble Intercontemporain under conductors such as Paavo Järvi, Yukata Sado and Armin Jordan. At the age of 22 she was appointed solo flutist of the Orchestre Philharmonie de Lorraine, before becoming solo flutist with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, under the direction of Michel Plasson a year later. She has since worked with conductors such as Gianandrea Noseda, Joseph Swensen, Georges Prêtre, Pinchas Steinberg, Yuri Temirkanov and Yannick Nezet-Seguin, performed in many prestigious international venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, Musikverein in Vienna, Megaron in Athens and Suntory Hall, Tokyo, and featured on many recordings with the orchestra, most notably Tchaikovsky Symphonies 4 and 5 and Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ with Tugan Sokhiev for the Naïve label.

Sandrine is also an active solo recitalist and chamber musician, performing through Europe, Asia and South America. Since 1993 she has performed regularly with the pianist Anne Le Bozec, with whom she has won many international prizes, appeared at prestigious festivals, broadcast for radio stations including France Musique, Mezzo and Sudwest Rundfunk and garnered much critical acclaim. They have also enjoyed many chamber music collaborations with celebrated artists including the cellists Alain Meunier and Emmanuelle Bertrand, and the singers Sarah Breton and Didier Henry.
Other chamber music partners include the harpist Sandrine Chatron, the marimba player Jean-Sebastien Borsarelo and the Sendrez Quartet (formerly Kairos Quartet) with whom she recorded a piece by Nicolas Bacri for their début album “horizons d’aujourd’hui” (Today’s Horizons) on the Triton label. Sandrine’s broad repertoire stretches from baroque to contemporary music, and she has given world premières of works by Thierry Huillet, Patrik Burgana and Susumu Yoshida amongst others.

Committed to encouraging the next generation of young flutists, she has taught masterclasses in France, Venezuela, Korea and Japan; she is frequently invited to coach the flute section of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes and regularly teaches at the Summer course « Festival-Academie des Arcs » in the French Alps.
She is currently Professeur of Flute at the Institut Supérieur des Arts de Toulouse, Toulouse’s post-secondary musical institution.

Sandrine plays on a 14 carat gold flute made by Verne Q. Powell.