Camille & Julie Berthollet are a string duo comprising of Camille, who plays cello and violin, and her violinist sister Julie. They have been performing around the world since 2008. Camille, the younger of the sisters, shot to fame at the age of 15, when she won French television talent competition Prodiges (Prodigies), viewed by 4.5 million people. She was soon signed as a Warner Classics artist and her debut album – featuring Julie as duo partner – achieved Gold status with over 100,000 copies sold.
The sisters have loved music from a young age: “Julie was the first one who asked our parents for a violin when she was two years old, I just followed her. Julie is very mature, super intelligent and her playing is both spontaneous and thoughtful,” says Camille. The love is mutual, as Julie says: “Camille is intuitive, she takes music very naturally, as she feels it. She likes wide and deep vibrations in a very natural way.”
Camille’s first instrument is the cello. “It’s the sound that attracted me, they say it’s closest to the human voice. I also like being together with him. The more I play, the more I love it.” Their playing has matured with dedication, study and practise. Camille honed her skills at Indiana University and Julie was fortunate to have regular violin classes in Vienna with Zakhar Bron, who also taught Maxim Vengerov.
The girls join forces once again for ‘The Four Seasons of Camille and Julie’ for Warner Classics, released on 3 April 2020. “We are so excited and thrilled to finally reveal our own four seasons! This is a project, which we have been imagining and developing for months… We heard The Four Seasons for the first time before we even knew how to talk, and the sound of the violin is one of our first childhood memories. “Vivaldi has laid the foundations of all modern music with his work, and if you listen carefully, you find his harmonies in all of today’s pop music. With this album, we built our own bridge between classical music that made us grow and the song that has soothed us for a long time.”
The album also includes one of Camille and Julie’s favourite living composers, Sir Karl Jenkins, as well as other thrilling displays of their virtuosity and more sensitive playing in Monti’s Czardas, John Williams’ theme from ‘Schindler’s List’ and Piazzolla’s Oblivion. They love practicing and performing: “Practicing hours makes me happy and playing in concert with the jitters is stimulating. Coming off the stage, it’s magical – you want to play all night!”
