“Meticulous but inspired restraint highlights the luminous subtlety of Guillaume Sutre’s bow strokes, evoking here the playing of Szymon Goldberg and Arthur Grumiaux. The highest of compliments, in our eyes.” - Jean-Michel Molkhou - Diapason, December 2015

Guillaume Sutre was only eighteen years old when he won the Alberto Curci International Violin Competition in Naples, Italy and the International Piano Trio ARD Competition in Munich. The list quickly fills out with a first prize at the European Chamber Music Competition FNAPEC (1989), first prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition (USA 1990), winner of the Prix de la Fondation Charles Oulmont (1989), first prize at the Lily Laskine Competition (1991) and winner of the Prix Georges Enesco de la SACEM (1994). In 1999, he was named Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.  

Mr. Sutre was attracted to chamber music early in his career. In 1986, he founded the Trio Wanderer; ten years later he became the first violinist of the Ysaÿe Quartet, a post he held for almost twenty years until their farewell concert in 2014 in Paris’ Cité de la Musique. His vast repertoire of over 600 works features all the string chamber music of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, all Mozart Violin sonatas and all 68 Haydn quartets. He has performed at many of the most prestigious venues around the world, Carnegie Hall in New York, Philadelphia PCMS, Washington Library of Congress, Jerusalem YMCA, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, La Roque d'Anthéron, Les Grandes Heures in Saint-Emilion, Berlin Philharmonie, Herkulessaal in München, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Wigmore Hall in London, Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Milano Società del Quartetto, Teatro di San Carlo in Napoli, Lisbon Gulbenkian Foundation, Bilbao Sociedad Filarmónica, Zurich Tonhalle, Addis Abeba Music School, Amazon Theatre in Manaus, Hanoi Opera House, with such performers as Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Gérard Caussé, Ana Chumachenco, Valentin Erben, Nelson Freire, Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Leonidas Kavakos, Martin Lovett, Yo-Yo Ma, Sabine Meyer, Enrico Pace, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Michel Portal, Pascal Rogé, Janos Starker. With his wife Kyunghee Kim-Sutre, they form a violin and harp duo and continue to explore and enrich the existing repertoire for this group, conducting extensive research in music libraries around the world while commissioning works from young composers.

In addition to his activity as a chamber musician, he also plays as a soloist with the Sinfonia Varsovia, Berlin RIAS Orchestra, Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, RAI Orchestra in Napoli, Franz Liszt Orchestra of Budapest, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Orchestre National d'Auvergne, Orchestre National de Bretagne, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal (Liège) and with conductors such as Christophe Coin, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Sheldon Morgenstern, David Robertson, Stefan Sanderling, Arie Van Beek. 

His recordings for Sony Classical, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, Aeon, Ysaÿe Records, Hortus and Sonarti have received the highest distinctions in France and internationally. His live recording of the complete duets of Haydn and Mozart with violist Miguel da Silva has been hailed by critics as definitive, his CD featuring the quartets of A. Boucourechliev was awarded the Charles Cros Academy’s Grand Prix du Disque, and his two recent albums, J. Woelfl: The Paris Years (Sonarti) and Pensés Intimes (Hortus / WWI), received the 5 of Diapason.

Before joigning the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal in 2021, he was professor of a string quartet class at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, professor of violin and director of chamber music for strings at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in Los Angeles, and was part of the inaugural faculty of The Tianjin Juilliard School in China. He has taught master classes at Juilliard, IU Bloomington Jacobs School of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of South California, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, McGill Schulich School of Music, Jerusalem Music Center, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Aldeburgh Britten-Pears Foundation, Zeister Muziekdagen, Festival Internacional de Inverno in Campos do Jordão, Seoul National University, Villecroze Musical Academy. 

Mr. Sutre is passionately committed to imparting his knowledge upon musicians of younger generations. He regularly performs with his students and in 2014 he co-produced the Calidore Quartet's debut CD. He regularly serves on juries of prestigious competitions, such as the Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris, the A. Postacchini International Violin Competition in Italy and the International String Quartet Competition in Bordeaux.

Guillaume Sutre began his studies in Douai, France; he then entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at age fourteen with Gérard Poulet and Jean-Claude Pennetier. After finishing his studies in France, he attended Indiana University at Bloomington to study with Josef Gingold, Franco Gulli, Menahem Pressler and Janos Starker. He subsequently studied in Cologne with the Amadeus Quartet.