Xavier de Maistre © Nikolaj Lund
Xavier de Maistre
“Xavier de Maistre is a virtuoso of the highest order, profoundly musical and capable of realising a remarkable range of nuance.” (Gramophone)
Xavier de Maistre is one of today’s leading harpists and a profoundly creative musician. As a fierce champion of his instrument, he has broadened the harp repertoire, commissioning new works from composers. He also creates transcriptions of important instrumental repertoire.
The 2025–2026 season is marked by the release of a Handel album (Sony Classical) with the Lucerne Festival Strings, which leads him to major venues such as the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin Konzerthaus, Cologne Philharmonie, Frankfurt Alte Oper, KKL Lucerne, Stuttgart Liederhalle, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Brucknerhaus Linz, and Stadttheater Olten. Highlights of the season also include performances with first-class orchestras and conductors, including the Budapest Festival Orchestra with David Robertson, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony under Sebastian Weigle in Tokyo, and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. He will present a carte blanche project “De Maistre & Friends” with Rolando Villazón, Lucero Tena and Magali Mosnier, at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he returns later in the season as part of the Mozart Week for a performance with the Camerata Salzburg. Xavier will also continue touring his signature projects across Europe, including Serenata Latina with Rolando Villazón and Nuits Fantastiques with Lambert Wilson.
He is regularly invited by first-class orchestras across the globe: Chicago, Montréal, City of Birmingham, Swedish and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras; Los Angeles, London, St Petersburg, Oslo and China Philharmonic Orchestras; Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo; working with conductors including Sir André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Philippe Jordan, Bertrand de Billy, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Daniel Harding, Susanna Mälkki and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.
As a recital soloist, he has been a guest at many top festivals, including Rheingau, Salzburger Festspielen, Wiener Festwochen, Verbier, Budapest Spring, Würzburg Mozartfest and Mostly Mozart in New York. He is passionate about chamber music and regularly puts together original recital projects, including numerous collaborations with highly versatile artists like tenor Rolando Villazón, flamenco and castanet legend Lucero Tena, Diana Damrau, Arabella Steinbacher, Daniel Müller-Schott, Baiba Skride, Antoine Tamestit, Mojca Erdmann or Magali Mosnier.
Xavier has been an exclusive Sony Music artist since 2008, when he recorded his first album, Nuit d’Etoiles, dedicated to Debussy. Further releases include Hommage à Haydn (2009), Aranjuez (2010), Notte Veneziana (2012), Moldau (2015), and La Harpe Reine (2016) with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie. His album Christmas Harp (October 2021) features paraphrases and fantasies of famous Christmas carols. He recorded a highly acclaimed Serenata Latina album with Rolando Villazon (Deutsche Gramophone) in 2020. In autumn 2022, his latest CD dedicated to Russian music was released, featuring Reinhold Glière’s famous harp concerto and Alexander Mosolov’s forgotten concerto, accompanied by WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln under the baton of Nathalie Stutzmann.
Born in Toulon, Xavier studied the harp with Vassilia Briano at his local conservatoire, before perfecting his technique with Catherine Michel and Jacqueline Borot in Paris. He also studied at Sciences-Po Paris and then at the London School of Economics. In 1998 he was awarded First Prize (and two interpretation prizes) at the prestigious USA International Harp Competition (Bloomington). He became the first French musician to be admitted to the Wiener Philharmoniker that same year.
He has taught at Musikhochschule in Hamburg since 2001.
De Maistre plays on a Lyon & Healy instrument.