Biography
Maithena Girault
Violin
Biography
Maïthéna Girault is a dynamic French Canadian violinist and pedagogue based in New York City. Winner of the Canadian Music Competition and of the Golden Violin Award, Canada’s largest collegiate music prize, she made her solo debut in Carnegie Hall in 2015. In 2024, she won the second prize of the Manhattan School of Music Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition and was awarded by the Fondation au soutien des art de Laval an Award of Excellence and the Claude-Lefebvre grant to record her debut CD with Johnson Li in summer 2025. The album, titled O R I G I N: Fantastical Journey will feature works from all over the world, old and new.
Listed on CBC Music’s 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30, she was the third prize winner and strings category winner at the 2019 Prix d’Europe competition. In 2023, she was a recipient of the Sphinx Organization’s MPower Artist Grant and twice before, a Sylva-Gelber Music Foundation Award recipient.
Maïthéna has concertized as a soloist with orchestras in Canada and in France more than a dozen times. She has appeared as concertmaster with orchestras in France, Germany, Italy, the United States and Montreal’s Maison symphonique. Her particular interests in new music and music by underrepresented composers reflects itself in all her programming and performing. Ms. Girault took part in the world premieres of works by composers Andrea Cassarrubios, Valerie Coleman, Xavier Foley, Ricardo Herz, Jessie Montgomery, Tanner Porter, Curtis Steward, and more.
Ms. Girault tours year-round with the Sphinx Virtuosi on the countries’ greatest stages including Carnegie Hall’s sold-out Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, the Isabella Gardner Museum, the New World Center, the Kimmel Center and Sala São Paulo in Brazil. Described as “beguiling… glowing richness… splendid performances” by the New York Times, the 18-member string ensemble recorded its debut CD under Deutsche Grammophonon in spring 2023. She similarly appears as a guest artist with Palaver Strings all over the US, including at the Tanglewood Music Center.
A passionate collaborative artist, Ms. Girault is a Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, of the Ruth Widder String Quartet Competition, and of the Fuchs Chamber Music Competition. Her appearances have taken her to Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United States at the sides of artists such as Jinjoo Cho, Laurence Kayaleh, Paul Marleyn, Douglas McNabney, Vadim Repin and Axel Strauss. Her mentors include Pierre Amoyal, Rachel Barton-Pine, Martin Chalifour, Augustin Dumay, James Ehnes, Patrice Fontanarosa, Rodney Friend, Michael Frischenschlager, Midori Gotō, Régis Pasquier, Vadim Repin, as well as members of the American, Alban Berg, Brentano, Borodin, Ébène, Emerson, Escher, Hagen, Juilliard, Jupiter, and Tokyo quartets. Major chamber music influences include the guidance of David Geber, Nicholas Mann, André Roy, and Mark Steinberg.
Maïthéna entered the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal at age eight where she studied with Helmut Lipsky for ten years. She went on to graduate with a Licentiate in Music and a Graduate Diploma of Performance from McGill University, where her primary teachers included Andrew Wan, Alexander Read and Axel Strauss. Next, she completed her Bachelor’s in two years followed by a Master’s at the Manhattan School of Music with Lucie Robert, graduating respectively with the Excellence in Chamber Music Award and Raphael Bronstein Award, given in recognition of an outstanding violinist with great promise as a performer and dedication to pedagogical devotion. In 2024, she also completed a Professional Performance Diploma on full scholarship.
Maïthéna performs on the 1858 Ex. ”Comte Koucheliov” violin by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume and a bow by Ouchard, both generously loaned to her by Canimex.
Maïthéna Girault is a first prize winner of the Canadian
Ms. Girault has concertized as a soloist with orchestras in Quebec and France more than a dozen times and has appeared as concertmaster with orchestras in France, Germany, Italy, the United States and Montreal’s Maison symphonique. A passionate chamber musician, she was a founding member of the Milton String Quartet, winner of the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition Grand Prize. Her chamber music appearances have taken her to Austria, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United States at the sides of artists such as Jinjoo Cho, Laurence Kayaleh, Paul Marleyn, Douglas McNabney, and Axel Strauss.
Neque et quam leo id sed egestas tellus lacus, habitant purus, viverra pretium eget pharetra odio blandit scelerisque iaculis lectus placerat nibh egestas consectetur in sed in porta consectetur tortor.
