Mélanie Clapiès and Yan Levionnois met in 2009 during a series of string ensemble concerts and soon decided to form a violin and cello duo. They took a chamber music course for this type of ensemble at the National Conservatoire of Paris, studying under Claire Désert, Ami Flammer and Yovan Markovitch, and received guidance from Truls Mørk, Philippe Muller, Syoko Aki as well as Aldo Parisot. They have performed at the festivals of Deauville, Cordes-sur-Ciel, Colmar and La Roque d’Anthéron as a resident ensemble.

Born into a family of teachers, the transmission of music has always been one of Melanie Clapiès’ ideals, and in parallel to her career as a violin player, she studied for a graduate diploma in violin teaching. She has taught successively at the conservatoires of Toulon and Bordeaux, as well as at the Paris École Normale de Musique.

Clapiès is currently studying at the Yale School of Music under Syoko Aki and receiving guidance from the Tokyo Quartet, the Artis Quartet and the Emerson Quartet, as well as from Rainer Schmidt and Vera Beths. Her priority being to garner as wide a range of experiences as possible, she is also drawn to conducting and composition. With her predilection for chamber music, she has founded a festival in Burgundy in collaboration with cellist Yan Levionnois.

Yan Levionnois began studying the cello with his father before continuing with Marc Coppey, Philippe Muller and Truls Mørk, and benefited in master-classes from the advice of Gary Hoffman, Heinrich Schiff, Natalia Gutman, Steven Isserlis and Natalia Shakhovskaïa.