A student of Josef Gingold in the United States, himself a student of Ysaye and Philippe Hirschorn, Philippe Graffin won the Fritz Kreisler Competition in Austria, where Lord Menuhin discovered him and invited him to record his first CD under his direction. Since then, he has shared the stage with some of the most emblematic artists of our time, such as Mtislav Rostropovich, Sir Roger Norrington, Ernest Bour, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Stephen Kovacevich and the Romanian conductor Sergio Comissiona.

Many composers have written and dedicated their works to Philippe Graffin such as the Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin with his “concerto parlando”, David Matthews and his concerto n.2, the Lithuanian composer Vytautas Barkauskas, “jeux” for violin and orchestra, as well as his double concerto with the violist Nobuko Imai. Philippe has also premiered Yves Prin’s concerto and numerous works written for him by Philippe Hersant.

Recently he premiered and recorded the concerto of English composer Peter Fribbins, written especially for him. He has been invited to prestigious festivals such as the BBC Proms, Enescu festival in Bucharest, the Radio France festival, Kuhmo, Finland, Rotterdam Gergiev festival, or the “Folles journées” in Nantes, musiq 3 festival in Brussels, or the “Printemps du Violon” in Paris. His discography is very rich and already includes about fifty discs of which more than thirty concertos, many of which are recorded for the first time.

As a chamber musician Philippe has been regularly invited to the Lincoln Center Chamber music Society and to the Wigmore Hall in London. He is also the founder of “Consonances”, a festival in Saint Nazaire, which he directed for 25 years. He has also created several events, notably several festivals around the composer Eugène Ysaye, at the Wigmore Hall in London, with the Orchestra in Residence in The Hague, and soon in Knokke, Belgium. He also invited the actor Gérard Depardieu, for a series of concert-readings “La nuit nous appartient” in Belgium, for the Belgian television, A Flagey, Brussels.

These recordings include Britten’s concerto with the London Philharmonia, record of the month for Gramophone Magazine, as well as Mendelssohn’s and Schumann’s concerto with the Padua Chamber Orchestra and Joseph Jongen’s works for violin and orchestra with the Antwerp Orchestra. This season he will be performing in Sweden with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, (Lalo Spanish Synphony) and an Elgar concerto in the United States with the Oberlin Symphony, and a tour of South Africa with the Brahms concerto and recitals.

He played at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with pianist Olli Mustonen and took part in numerous festivals such as Pablo Casals, Prades, Musiq 3 Flagey, Brussels, and the Turina Festival in Seville for example. He teaches at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and at the CNSM of Paris. Philippe Graffin is artistic director of the Ysaÿe festival in Knokke le Zoute which he created in 2017, and artistic director of the La Mirande concerts in Avignon.