Édouard DÉTHIER

Son of Émile-Jean-Joseph Déthier, the organist and professor at the Royal Conservatory in Liège, Édouard Déthier began studying the violin at a very young age with his older brother, Gaston, also an organist, pianist and precocious composer. Édouard’s early career in Belgium was hugely successful. At the age of eight, he entered the Liège Conservatory, graduating with a Premier Prix. He then enrolled in the Brussels Conservatory, where he obtained the highest prize for violin, before going on to teach there from 1902, aged only seventeen. During the same period, he began to acquire sound experience as a concert performer: appointed solo violin at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, he also made his first appearances in the orchestra conducted by Eugène Ysaÿe, a close friend of his father. In 1905, Déthier emigrated to the United States to join his brother Gaston, who had left Belgium in 1894 (and who had become a naturalised American). He then began a second brilliant career as a teacher and virtuoso. The year of his arrival, he performed Vieuxtemps’ Fourth Concerto with the New York Symphony Orchestra and made his debut two years later with the New York Philharmonic on the stage of Carnegie Hall. He gave several concerts with this orchestra after this, under the baton of conductors like Gustav Mahler. His tours took him all over the United States and Canada. In New York, he played in some chamber music ensembles, particularly with the pianist and composer Cécile Chaminade, one of whose trios they performed. In 1907, Déthier was appointed professor at the prestigious Institute of Musical Art, which merged with the Juilliard School in 1926. From 1910 onwards, he devoted himself increasingly to teaching, continuing to give lessons until his death. During his long educational career, Déthier trained many famous violinists, including Giora Bernstein, Julius Hegyi or Robert Mann.