Thanks to his dual training as musician and actor, Vincent Figuri has been established for some years as the incontrovertible specialist in the role of recitation, particularly in melodramatic parts when such productions are brought back into favour and where « his voice makes one listen to the music ».
Vincent Figuri studied piano and chamber music at the Conservatoire National de Région de Grenoble, where he won first prize, while taking in parallel a theatre course at the Florent private school and at Berkeley University in California. He crowned his achievement with higher degrees in musicology and literature at the Sorbonne and it is that has given each interpretation that spirit informed by research so much praised by the critics.
After varied appearances on the French theatrical stage (The prince in The New Menoza by Lenz, the madman in Gogol’s Diary of a madman, Aperghis…) his comedian’s temperament and his training of professional musician leads him to cast a new light on works where music and theatre are joined.
He totally renews the approach of classics like Stravinsky’s Soldier’s tale, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf or The Story of Babar by Poulenc which he “transforms in glittering one-man-show where he recites, sings, plays and dances”.
He so reveals forgotten masterpieces by Mozart, Liszt, Sibelius, Schumann, Martinu, Prokofiev, Reynaldo Hahn, Ibert, Bruneau, Fibich, Ostrcil and many other composers on texts by Musset, Daudet, Goethe, Byron… which he discovers in European libraries and bring back into light after a musicologist, translation and rewriting work where his voice is the one of a comedian and a musician. Vincent Figuri is the only actor who has played in their entirety Sibelius’ melodramas he created in Prades Casals’ festival and those by Liszt he performed with Michel Dalberto. He can bring more than 20 French creations and 12 world creations to his credit. He also arouses commands with composers like Noël Lee or Krystof Maratka who wrote melodramas for him.
He has been engaged in the Salle Pleyel and the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Prague’s International Festival, Presences Radio France, Pablo Casals Prades, Auvers-sur-Oise, Consonances in Saint-Nazaire, Art sacré in Antibes, Cannes-Mandelieu, Amadeus in Geneva or on France-Musique where broadcasts have been dedicated to him. His collaborations with Czech Philarmonic, l’Orchestre de Paris, Marek Janowski, Jiri Belohlavek, Mickaël Rudy, Calliopée and Carpe Diem ensembles, Arto Noras, Noël Lee, Isabelle Moretti, Michel Dalberto, Pascal Amoyel or the quartets Ysaÿe, Voce, Varèse has been greeted by criticism who’s seeing in him “an artist of highest value”
Tireless discoverer, Vincent Figuri has been a producer on France-Musique where his radio broadcasts (Un Eté à la campagne, Mémoire retrouvée, A Pied d’œuvre), received an excellent welcome in the national press.
Poet, he also published a collection of poetries named L’Offrande poétique. As a teacher, he’s regularly asked to present young public concerts with the Orchestre National d’Île de France and the Orchestre National de France, with Hélène Grimaud, Pavoo Järvi, Nemanja Radulovic, David Zinmann…
He founded his own recording label, Salamandre, to promote original repertoire. His performances were awarded ****Classica, 5 Diapasons, ffff Télérama.