"The audience discovered the virtuosity of violinist François Pineau-Benois. "Chic as Ravel and diabolical as a Romanian", the musician literally captivated the audience with his performance imbued with a captivating and spellbinding emotional wholeness." Le Journal de la Haute Marne, 27 January 2024
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"In the violinist's playing are felt not only technical mastery, a great school, but also the depth of feelings, sincerity, a very individual and sometimes very modern interpretation of classical works." North Star, August 1 2018
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"The 17-year old French youth Pineau-Benois gave the first movement of Franck’s sonata with great maturity and insight, ... and ended with Franz Waxmann’s Carmen Fantasy; one doubts if one could hear this brilliant showpiece played better -technically, musically or with more élan... It was simply outstanding." Musical Opinion (UK), November-December 2012
A concert violinist of the new generation, François Pineau-Benois has been dubbed the ‘French virtuoso’ by the international press. He holds master degrees in violin and chamber music from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP). He studied with Régis Pasquier at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot. He has also worked with Maxim Vengerov, Salvatore Accardo and Mauricio Fuks at competitive European academies such as Kronberg. He has received career grants from the Fondation Banque Populaire and Safran pour la Musique (2017), Culture Moves Europe (EU), Adami (2023), and prizes from international competitions such as Pro Musici, Alexander Glazounov, and the Young Artist Prize at the Leopold Mozart Competition. He plays with renowned musicians François-René Duchable, Régis Pasquier,... And young musicians in France and abroad. The non-exhaustive list of the countries of his concerts includes Belgium, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Israel, the United Kingdom, Austria, the Czech Republic, Turkey, etc. He has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras abroad and in France on several occasions.
His performance of Vieuxtemps's 5th concerto with the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia (NCO) in April 2023 got a standing ovation from the audience in the presence of their Excellencies the ambassadors of France and Belgium. In April 2024 he performed the virtuoso violin concerto No. 2 by Chevalier de Saint George (NCO) with the same success.
He has been invited by France Musique, Dutch Radio and Radio Bartok for live broadcasts. He has performed at the Salle Cortot, the Grand Salon des Invalides, the Liszt Chamber hall in Budapest… and at prestigious festivals such as Auvers-sur-Oise, Festival de Ravel in Montfort, Festival Radio France in Montpellier, Gstadt New Year Festival...
His two CDs Madness with the Philia Trio (2022) and the album of Paganini's 24 Caprices released in December 2024 have been selected by France Musique.
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A multi-faceted musician, he has worked with contemporary composers Graciane Finzi, Régis Campo, Antonio Santana and Seppo Torvikoski, recorded Matti Murto's Concertino for Violin and Strings, supported by the Télépart mobility grant from the Finnish Institute in Paris, and created the AAVA concerto for violin and string orchestra, composed for him by Jarno Vanhanen.
With the support of the ACM SIGMM sceintific society, François Pineau-Benois runs the ‘Music meets Science’ programme and revives the works of composers from the Rachmaninoff Conservatoire in the ‘Voices of Exile’ concert series supported by the Belaieff-Schott Foundation.
François Pineau-Benois plays Lucien Durosoir's historic 18th-century Italian violin ‘Le Genève’, the instrument this early 20th-century virtuoso took with him to the front during the First World War.
He is professor at the Rachmaninoff Conservatory in Paris, founded by the composer himself. He has given masterclasses to students at the Oulu Conservatory (Finland) and the Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan (Armenia).