Augustin Viard (ondes Martenot)

Born in Provence, France, Augustin Viard started his musical learning journey through eclectic contemporary styles such as rock music and blues. In 2004, he joined the ondes Martenot class at the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt, headed by Pascale Rousse-Lacordaire. Five years later, he was admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, studying in the ondes Martenot class of Valérie Hartmann-Claverie, and performing Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie. He graduated in 2013 with a Masters Degree. In 2023 he performed Turangalila with the Utah Symphony, and in 2024 Saint François d’Assise in Hamburg under Kent Nagano.

His eagerness to explore new creative horizons allowed him to be involved in numerous contemporary premieres, to collaborate with several chamber music groups (Hendricks’ Quartet, Ensemble Vecteurs ondes, Ensemble Volta, Ensemble Traces d’Aujourd’hui) and to execute improvised music.

Augustin Viard has performed Ecuatorial by Edgard Varèse with the Ensemble Intercontemporain under Susanna Maälki. He has also given several performances of Jeanne d’arc au bûcher by Arthur Honegger, including with Het Promenade Orkest conducted by Jos Vermunt, the Osnabrücker Symphonieorchester conducted by Andreas Hotz, in Mexico with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Unam conducted by Sylvain Gasançon, with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Liebreich, and in Budapest with the Orchestre National de Lille conducted by Alexandre Bloch.

He released his first album with Ensemble Volta in 2013 a comprehensive collection of composer Tristan Murail’s works for ondes Martenot, for the label ReR Megacorp. This tribute was awarded Grand Prix du Président de la République de l’Académie Charles Cros 2014, an honour personally attributed by the French President. In 2020 he performed on Nick Cave’s album ‘Ghosteen’ and on Marianne Faithfull’s ‘The Lady of Shallot’.

Augustin Viard plays Evgeni and Sacha Galverine’s film score for string quartet, piano and ondes Martenot on Andreï Zviaguintsev’s Oscar nominated film Loveless which received the Prix du Jury du Festival de Cannes 2017 and the César du meilleur film étranger (best foreign film) 2018. He devised a programme of arrangements for ondes Martenot and organ for France Culture ‘In the head of Ingmar Bergman’ and created the soundtrack for a new documentary film by Frédéric Compain ‘Cuba, un aller et un retour’ broadcast on Arte Television in January 2019. In 2021 he composed the original theme for ‘Earwig’ a full-length film directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, which won the Special Jury Prize at the San Sebastian International Film Festival and was nominated at the 2021 BFI London Film Festival. During lockdown he composed a solo ondes Martenot soundtrack for the 1928 silent film The Fall of the House of Usher by legendary French filmaker Jean Epstein. In January 2022 he performed the score live for a cinema screening at the Arvor Cinema in Rennes, France.

He is Professor of ondes Martenot at the Conservatoire de Boulogne Billancourt.