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.

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”.

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 “Foundation d’Addario”. After a long tour through this country with David Leisner, she flew to Japan where she played with Minoru Inagaki.

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..

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

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.

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

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”.

Today, Valérie Duchâteau is an artist 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.