First Prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2017 in Brussels, as part of the first edition dedicated to cello, Victor Julien-Laferrière also won the First Prize and two special prizes at the 2012 Prague Spring International Competition. In 2018, he was awarded the Victoire de la Musique in France as Best Instrumental Soloist.
Julien-Laferrière began the cello with René Benedetti, then studied successively with Roland Pidoux at the Paris Conservatoire, Heinrich Schiff at the University of Vienna and Clemens Hagen at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. At the same time, he took part in the Seiji Ozawa International Music Academy Switzerland (2005-2011).
Recent and upcoming highlights include performances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra & Valery Gergiev, Orchestre National de France & Emmanuel Krivine, RTÉ Orchestra Dublin & Nathalie Stutzmann, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse & Tugan Sokhiev, Belgian National Ochestra & Maxim Emelyanychev, Orchestre National d’Ile de France & James Feddeck, Brussels Philharmonic & Stéphane Denève and Jiri Rozen, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie & Yves Abel, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris & David Reiland, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne & Joshua Weilerstein, I Pomeriggi Musicali de Milan & Yusuke Kumehara, Ural Philharmonic & Dmitri Liss, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra & Alexander Joel, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia & Olivier Grangean, Orchestre National de Montpellier & Michele Gamba, and Orchestre National de Lille & Jean-Claude Casadessus.
As a recitalist and chamber musician, he is the guest of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Philharmonie de Paris, CelloBiennale in Amsterdam, Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, Essen Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Louisiana Museum in Copenhague, KKL of Lucerne, Tonhalle of Zurich, Auditorium du Louvre, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Phillips Collection in Washington, Fondation Louis Vuitton, and the festivals of Prague Spring, MecklenburgVorpommern, Kuhmo, Gstaad, Copenhagen Summer Festival, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Rheingau Musik Festival, Folles Journées de Nantes et Tokyo, Ester festivals of Deauville and Aix-en-Provence.
His discography is earning critical acclaim, including a Diapason d’or of the Year 2017 for his sonata album with pianist Adam Laloum. In 2019, Sony Music released a new album devoted to Schubert with Julien-Laferrière’s trio Les Esprits, and a recording with pianist Jonas Vitaud was released by Alpha Classics.