Valérie Duchâteau grew up in Céret, a small town located in the south of France and impregnated with a lot of culture as Picasso or Braque also stayed there before becoming famous. The geographical situation of Céret, at a few miles from Spain, will really help her concerning the choice of her musical instrument and so she will choose to play the guitar very naturally. 

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She was hardly eleven when she was introduced to Alexandre Lagoya who managed her immediately and said : “Valérie Duchâteau will find her place in the guitar history”.

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So it was the beginning of twelve years of collaboration with Alexandre Lagoya whom she met at the “Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris” again, where she got a first prize before appealing to the United States. There she got the first prize of the “Fondation d’Addario”. After a long tour through this country with David Leisner, she flew to Japan where she played with Minoru Inagaki.

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Coming back from one of her journeys, she met Marcel Dadi with whom she often shared the stage. If she only was a classical guitarist until this period, she discovered then country music, picking. One more time, she played with the greatest artists like Chet Atkins, Larry Corryel or also Nato Lima..

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In Nashville, where she felt a little at home, Tom Bresh managed her first album “America”.

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Then she found her classical musical universe for two years again, at the “Opéra de Paris”, where the conductor James Conlo wanted her as a soloist guitarist at his side.

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She also paid a tribute to the great Django Reinhardt withe the album « Perfume of Django », 12 original transcriptions of the Gipsy Master, recorded with a classical guitar.

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As she was always very interested, she continued her experience with press by starting a magazine devoted to the acoustic guitar, « Guitarist Acoustic » and an other magazine devoted to the classical guitar, « Guitare Classique ».

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Today, Valérie Duchâteau is an artist and and accomplished young lady who was able to find a new way in the classical guitar genre, as well in her educational work as in her performance, her arrangements or compositions.

 

 Music playing is the speech of her mind.