Séverine Ballon will play pieces from her solo repertoire, including works written specifically for her, developed in collaboration with composers. These includes works by Liza Lim, Rama Gottfried, Ashley Fure, Mauro Lanza, and Dominik Karski.

Séverine Ballon studied the cello at the Hochschule of Berlin and Lübeck with Joseph Schwab and Troels Svane. In 2004-2005, she was academist at the Ensemble Modern (Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie). She perfected her contemporary cello technique with Siegfried Palm, Pierre Strauch and Rohan de Saram. In 2005-2006, she was solo cellist of the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, then decided to concentrate in contemporary music and premiering new works. In 2008-2009 she was resident artist at the Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart).

She has worked with the most renowned contemporary music ensembles: Klangforum Wien, musikFabrik, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ictus… She is a member of the Elision ensemble (Australia), Multilatérale (Paris) and Ensemble Experimental (Freiburg, Germany).

She particularly enjoys working directly with composers, such as Helmut Lachenmann, Liza Lim, Rebecca Saunders… She has premiered solo works which have been dedicated to her (Liza Lim, Erik Ulman, Mauro Lanza, Stefano Bulfon, Clara Iannotta, David Coll…). She is working on developing extended techniques for her instrument and finding an appropriate notation.

Her interest in electronic music has led her to work at the IRCAM with the composer David Coll and Rama Gottfried, and also in close collaboration with the studio “La Muse en Circuit” (Alfortville).

Séverine Ballon was laureate of the international competition for the interpretation of contemporary music of Gioia del Colle (Italy) in 2004 and of the Marie-Luise Imbusch Foundation.

Her activity as an improviser has led her to work in a duo with the electronic artist Sébastien Roux, she has also performed with the visual artists Alexander Schellow and Evi Keller.

In 2010 she was soloist at the Stuttgart Opera in the opera “pnima” by Chaya Czernowin. In April 2013 she will be invited as a visiting artist at Harvard University.