Biography
Daughter of music aficionados, Gaëlle Solal discovered the classical guitar at the age of five and enrolled in the Marseille Conservatory the following year. At only 16 years old, she entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Some dreams never fade and young Gaëlle’s notebook on which is written: „When I grow up, I want to be a dancer and musician“ can testify to this.
After three years, she completed the CNSM with the 1st Prize for guitar unanimously, the DFS with the honors and a great willingness to learn. Playful, ambitious and eager not to miss any challenge, she took part in international competitions in parallel with her Master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. In 1998, she became the first French woman to win one of the most renowned classical guitar competitions, the Alessandria concourse. An honorary laureate to numerous foundations, she also won twelve prizes in national and international competitions.
In the early 2000s, Gaëlle Solal moved to Andalusia where she got a position as Associate Professor at the Superior Conservatories of Cordoba and Seville. During these seven years of teaching, she never stopped learning and attended masterclasses around the world. In 2006, after a ten year collaboration with the Astor duo, Gaëlle Solal resumed her solo career, winning the second prize of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America and performing in over forty countries.
In 2009, an unexpected escapade in Brazil made her career take a new turn. On her return, she gave up teaching to devote herself fully to her infinite love for the stage. More attached to freedom than dogma, Gaëlle Solal moves seamlessly from the solemn solo in a long dress to the clownish duo Crazy Nails with Boris Gaquere, Bach to the Beatles, from contemporary to baroque. Committed and supportive, she fights for the presence and visibility of women in the guitar world via the association „Guitar’Elles“ of which she is the founder.
She has been living in Brussels since 2011. Her album « Tuhu » published in December 2020 at Eudora Records has garnered unanimous praise from critics.