Hortense Airault

Is a French cellist, composer, and performer whose work blends contemporary repertoire, composition, improvisation, and interdisciplinary creation.

Born in 1999 in Paris, she spent her childhood in the Indian Ocean on the island of Mayotte, where she discovered the cello. She then studied at the CRR de Paris in Thomas Duran’s class before joining the Haute École de Musique de Genève, studying in Ophélie Gaillard’s class. She completed her Master Concert program with a Composer-Performer specialization, under the guidance of Ophélie Gaillard and Joshua Hyde. Hortense is currently continuing her studies at the Hochschule der Künste Bern with a master’s in Composition Creative Practice.

Passionate about contemporary music, she collaborates with ensembles such as Contrechamps, Ensemble Intercontemporain, ONCEIM, and Nomos. She has also participated in the Stauffer Academy in Cremona and the Ulysses Academy in collaboration with members of Ensemble Intercontemporain.

Her encounter with Joëlle Léandre introduced her to the world of improvisation. She co-founded Duo Imminent with Ana Parejo Belando, a project dedicated to free improvisation and collaborative compositions with electronics, which has been featured at Archipel Festival (Geneva) and Mixtur Festival (Barcelona).

In parallel, she is a member of the Free Spirit Ensemble (an improvisation ensemble directed by Ibrahim Maalouf) and performs with La Fanfare du Loup and Vincent Le Quang, focusing on soundpainting. She has also taken part in the Académie de Villecroze with Vincent Ségal and Vincent Peirani, as well as in "Les Ateliers du Violoncelle" alongside Vincent Courtois, Noémi Boutin, and Éric-Maria Couturier.

As a composer, Hortense has studied with Luis Naón, Arturo Corrales, and Joshua Hyde at the HEM Geneva, then with Simon Steen Andersen , Cathy Van Eck, Angela Bürger and Franziska Baumann at the HKB Bern.
She has received commissions for Ensemble Contrechamps, Quatuor MOMO, and Les Ateliers du Violoncelle 2024.
Her works L’Une e(s)t l’Autre and Corps Accords are published by 22D Music, and she composed and improvised for the contemporary circus show Immaqaa from the MPTA compagny.

She is also dedicated to string quartet performance, having studied with Quatuor Voce, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and Noémie Bialobroda, and participated in Musical Chairs Festival in Canada. She completed a CAS in string quartet performance in Quatuor Belcea’s class and creates interdisciplinary projects with her ensemble Quatuor MOMO.
With the quartet, she won first prize at the "Osez!" 2025 competition, third prize at the Orpheus 2024 competition, and received the Daisy de Saugy Prize and the Ponticello Prize at "Osez!" 2023.

Hortense was awarded the Fritz Gerber Award from the Lucern festival, Tremplin Leenaards Prize and the Contrechamps Prize in October 2024, recognizing her innovative creative approach.
She also won first prize at the Violoncellenseine competition and received an Antoine Gonon cello on loan following the Musique et Vin competition at Clos Vougeot.