Jean-Pierre Wallez

Jean-Pierre Wallez (born March 18, 1939) is a French violinist and conductor.

Wallez was born in Lille. He graduated in first place in violin and chamber music at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris. He won the highest prize of the 1960 Paganini Competition in Genoa after winning three lesser prizes in previous years. Wallez was laureate of the International Competition in Geneva, as well as of the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris.

He was the first solo-violin of the Orchestre de Paris from 1975 to 1977. At the same time, from 1968 to 1983, he was the leader of the Ensemble Instrumental de France, touring extensively. While doing this, he continued his career as a soloist; he played with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink, the Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim and Zubin Mehta, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. He also played with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Isaac Stern, Henryk Szeryng, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Mstislav Rostropovich, Galina Vishnevskaya, Aldo Ciccolini, Paul Badura-Skoda, and Pierre Barbizet.