Catherine Cantin belongs to the distinguished lineage that upholds the great French flute tradition.
She entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at a very young age, where she was awarded a Premier Prix in flute in the class of Jean-Pierre Rampal and Alain Marion.
Since the age of 19, she has served as Principal Flute (Super-Soloist) of the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris, while simultaneously pursuing an active international career as a soloist and chamber musician across Europe, the United States, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, the former Soviet Union, and Japan (performing with the New Japan Philharmonic and the NHK Symphony Orchestra, under conductors such as Seiji Ozawa). She was also invited to the Saito Kinen Festival under Ozawa’s direction.
She has served on the jury of the Jean-Pierre Rampal International Flute Competition.
Her repertoire spans from Baroque to contemporary music.
She teaches flute and chamber music at the Paul Dukas Conservatory in Paris’s 12th arrondissement and holds an advanced flute class at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot.
She gives numerous masterclasses and concerts around the world.
Recordings include:
- Mozart Concertos with the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Paris under Georges Prêtre
- Mozart operas with the Maurice Bourgue Wind Ensemble
- A chamber music recording for Decca International (works by Françaix, Roussel, Tansman, Milhaud…) with Pascal Rogé (piano), Maurice Bourgue (oboe), Michel Portal (clarinet), André Cazalet (horn), and Amaury Wallez (bassoon)
In the United States, she was nominated by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences for Best Instrumental Performance at the 1995 Grammy Awards for Concert à quatre by Olivier Messiaen, of which she is the dedicatee, alongside Mstislav Rostropovich, Heinz Holliger, Yvonne Loriod, and Myung-Whun Chung. The world premiere took place on September 26, 1994, at the Opéra de Paris, and the recording was released by Deutsche Grammophon with the full group of dedicatees.
She premiered a concerto for flute, alto flute, and piccolo by Frédéric van Rossum in Antwerp and Ghent with the Orchestra of Flanders.
She plays a 19.5-carat gold flute by Powell.
In July 2015, she was named Chevalier of Arts and Letters by French Minister of Culture Fleur Pellerin.