ABBA

He attended the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris from 2001 to 2005, when he obtained the First Prize of Cello and his Higher Training Diploma, graduating with highest honours.

In 2005, he won First Prize at the Maurice Gendron International Cello Competition, and in 2006, won top prize at the Adam International Cello Competition.

He furthered his education at the New England Conservatory of Music, and acquired his Master’s in 2007. His teachers have included Bernard Greenhouse, Lawrence Lesser, and Philippe Muller.

In July 2007, he participated in the Ravinia Festival in Illinois. He and clarinetist Larry Combs and pianist Adam Golka performed Alexander Zemlinsky’s “Clarinet Trio in D minor, Op. 3” on 14^th July. On 21^st July, he and Adam and violinist Elissa Cassini interpreted Robert Schumann’s “Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 63”.

He joined the ranks of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2008 and co-founded the Boston Cello Quartet and A Far Cry, which is a chamber orchestra also based in Boston. Other groups with which he has worked include the Boston Artists Ensemble, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the French Camerata, the Gustav Mahler Jungend Orchester, the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, and the LiveARTS String Quartet.

In 2008, he delivered the American premiere of Edith Canat de Chizy’s solo cello piece, “Les formes du vent”.

He and pianist Andrei Baumann and violinist David McCarroll played Maurice Ravel’s “Piano Trio” at Emmanuel Church in Boston on 7^th May 2009.

On 18^th October 2009. he and pianist Leon Livshin and violinist Yura Lee offered up works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Anton Webern at the United Methodist Church in Madison, New Jersey.

He and violinists Catherine French and Julianne Lee and violist Edward Gazouleas appeared at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, on 22^nd November 2009. Their program comprised Claude Debussy’s “String Quartet in G minor, Op. 30”, Ernst von Dohnanyi’s “Serenade in C for String Trio, Op. 10”, and Alessandro Rolla’s “Duo for Violin and Viola”.

On 21^st May 2010, he reunited with violinist Yura Lee in Fraser Performance Studio at WGBH to record Zoltan Kodaly’s “Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7”.

The Boston Cello Quartet took the stage at Pickman Hall in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 22^nd November 2010, when they performed “Adagio” by Tomaso Albinoni and Remo Giazotto, “Konzertwalzer” by Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, “Marche Militaire No. 1 in D” by Franz Schubert, “La muerte del angel” by Astor Piazzolla, the overture from The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini, the overture from The Marriage of Figaro and “Sonata in D, K. 381” by Mozart, and “Variations on a New World” by Blaise himself.

In 2011, they reprised the above program at the Church of the Redeemer in Newton, Massachusetts, and the Lillie Auditorium at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

They presented a very different program at Ozawa Hall in Lenox, Massachusetts, on 29^th July 2011. It included Blaise’s arrangements of “Sheep May Safely Graze” and “Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565” by Johann Sebastian Bach, “Clair de lune” by Debussy, “Humoreska in G, Op. 101, No. 7” by Antonin Dvorak, “Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells”, “The Great Gate of Kiev”, “Promenade” and “Tuileries” from Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, and Blaise’s own “Wolfgang Variations”.

On 8^th August 2011, they were the opening act for Train at Tanglewood, where they performed Blaise’s arrangements of the band’s “Marry Me” and “Parachute”.

The Boston Artists Ensemble performed “Trio in B flat, Op. 99, D. 898” by Schubert, “Trio in D minor, Op. 63” by Schumann, and the ever popular mystery piece, on 23^rd and 25th September 2011.

On 16^th October 2011, the LiveARTS String Quartet appeared at the Meetinghouse of the First Universalist Society in Franklin. Their program consisted of “Italian Serenade” by Hugo Wolf, “String Quartet in F major” by Ravel, and “String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804” by Schubert.

The BCQ reprised much of their Ozawa Hall concert at Lynn Classical High School on 23^rd October 2011 and the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury on 30^th October 2011.

On 6^th and 11^th November 2011, the BAE offered up “Cello Quintet in D, Op. 29, No. 1” by Luigi Boccherini, “Sextet in B flat, Op. 18” by Brahms, and “Verklarte Nacht, Op. 4” by Arnold Schoenberg.

In addition to playing the cello, Blaise has also played the blues harmonica at the Paris Conservatoire, decried racism in the European Parliament, and played football in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is also a sleight-of-hand magician who specializes in card tricks.

Recordings on which he appears include Chris Botti in Boston and Chris Botti’s Live in Boston.

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