The French clarinetist Michel Lethiec is currently considered as one of the eminent figures of the international musical world. An artist very present on the concert and festival stages, he is also passionate about teaching and participates very actively in the research and dissemination of the repertoire, as a performer and as a program designer. He performs as a soloist and in chamber music, partner of the most renowned performers and orchestras.
An enthusiastic interpreter of the music of our time, he has created numerous pieces and concertos, including works by Penderecki, Corigliano, Denisow, Maratka, Ballif, Landowski, Decoust, Dalbavie, Fourchotte, Risset, Scolari, Narita, Brotons, Hersant , Giraud, Lee, Ryu .....
His important discography, for Lyrinx, Naxos, Arion, RCA, Bis, Talent, Actes Sud, includes two major record prices, and premieres recordings: Concertos and chamber music by Krzysztof Penderecki, Porgy & Bess by Gershwin in an arrangement by Frank Villard for clarinet and strings. “The Tears and Prayers of Isaac the Blind,” by Golijov with string quartet. His second recording of Penderecki's concerto (under the direction of the composer) won the International Record Prize (March 2016), and the quintets by Bernard Hermann (the composer of Hitchcock) and David Del Tredici are now featured in his record repertoire with the Fine Arts Quartet, (Naxos)
A CD devoted to the music for clarinet by Krystof Maratka was released by Arion in 2018, with the author at the piano, violist Karine Lethiec and the Zemlinski quartet. In November 2018, together with Patrick Gallois and the Warsaw Juventus Orchestra, he premiered Krzysztof Penderecki's new concerto for flute, clarinet and orchestra.
Renowned teacher, he is Honorary Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Professor at the Conservatory of Nice and regularly gives master classes at the École Normale de Paris and in major foreign institutions (China, Hamburg, Finland, Brazil, Prague )
Many of his students are now in important orchestras ( Turino Theatro, Toulouse National Orchestra, Shangai Philharmonic, Malmoe opera, Barcelona Liceo, Bilbao opera, Rotterdam Philharmonic…) or got teaching positions…
He is the guest of international competition juries (Geneva, Leipzig, Prague, Munich, Osaka, Beijing, Friborg, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Rouen ...)
Artistic director of the prestigious Pablo Casals de Prades Festival from 1982 to 2020, he hosted every summer the greatest chamber musicians and their students, around original programs also presented at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris and in several other capitals: Tokyo , Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico.
Michel Lethiec is Chevalier in the National Order of Merit and in the Order of Arts and Letters.