Born in 1995 in Avignon, France, Marie Lestrelin began playing the violin at the age of six, later adding piano to her studies. She was admitted to the class of Florin Szigeti at the Conservatoire de Paris, and continued her training with Alexandre Brussilovsky and Arielle Gill.
Since 2014, Marie has been regularly selected to perform at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, both as a tutti and solo violinist. There, she developed her orchestral skills under the guidance of members of the London Symphony Orchestra and renowned conductors such as François-Xavier Roth, Pablo Heras-Casado, and Gianandrea Noseda.
She holds a National Professional Musician Diploma and a State Diploma in Violin Pedagogy from the Pôle Supérieur – Conservatoire of Paris, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Musicology from the University of Paris–Sorbonne. In 2013, she received the Award of Merit from the Légion d’Honneur. A lifelong opera enthusiast, she began her musical journey in the Children’s Choir of the Opéra d’Avignon, where she trained and performed for several years.
In 2019, Marie joined the London-based Southbank Sinfonia for a one-year contract. Since returning to France, she has pursued an active freelance orchestral career, performing with ensembles including the Orchestre National de Montpellier, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Avignon, Orchestre National de Cannes, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Opéra de Toulon Orchestra, Les Frivolités Parisiennes, Yellow Socks Orchestra, Les Forces Majeures, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Aarhus Sinfonietta, and Aarhus Kammerorkester, among others.
Alongside her orchestral engagements, Marie is an avid chamber musician. She is a founding member of the Quatuor Alberta and the Ensemble Gayaneh, which won First Prize in the “Young Talents” category at the Centr’Ensemble Competition in Paris in 2016. Last February, she was rewarded as a trio member at the RAMA Festival Chamber Music Competition in Aarhus
Her performances have taken her to many prestigious venues and festivals, including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Barbican Centre in London, Berliner Philharmonie, Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix, Antic Teatre of Orange, Philharmonie of Paris, Gloucester Cathedral, Aarhus Musikhuset, and the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, among others.
