Gandhi SAAD
Viola player

Gandhi received a grant to help him to purchase his viola.

What is your artistic background ?
I began studying music in Palestine at the age of 6, starting with the piano, but switched to the violin at the age of 7, which I played until I was 18. In 2018, I moved to Geneva, Switzerland, to pursue a bachelor's degree in violin at the Haute École de Musique, studying with Professor Tedi Papavrami for violin and Professor Gabor Takacs-Nagy for chamber music. In 2021, I left Switzerland for Reggio Emilia, Italy, to continue my studies in violin and chamber music at the master's level with Alessandro Ferrari, Emmanuele Benfenatti, and Mikaela Costea. In 2022, I was admitted with my family quartet, the Galilee Quartet, to the Stauffer String Academy, with the Cremona Quartet, for a diploma in chamber music performance. In 2023, I moved to Paris with my quartet, and in 2024 I passed the entrance exam for the Paris Conservatory of Music and Dance, in Professor Olivier Charlier's class for my second master's degree. In 2025, my quartet and I passed the entrance exam for the CNSMDP and were admitted to the class of Professor François Salque and Professor Jean Sulem for a master's degree in string quartet.
Thanks to music, I have been able to travel to many countries in Europe and Asia, performing concerts in prestigious venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Radio France Auditorium, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Vienna Musikverein, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Royal Albert Hall (London), the Victoria Hall (Geneva), and many others.

How do you see your profession today ?
Today, we find ourselves in a state of both hope and despair. I see that there is great talent and a growing interest in music, and this makes us want to share our thoughts and feelings through music. I think we live in a world that needs more empathy, to feel others, and to listen attentively, with a genuine desire to understand each other, and that is where I think the beauty of music can emerge more clearly and purely. Despair sets in when we see that governments have recently become somewhat repressive towards artists, cutting subsidies for festivals and reducing budgets for arts and culture in general. This puts us in a difficult position, where we often can't find concerts that pay decent fees, and some festivals are ceasing to exist. Nevertheless, we must remain hopeful, fight against the repression of artists, mobilize, and help each other.

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? in 10 years ?
It may be optimistic, but I think it's also realistic: I'll be performing in major concert halls with my family quartet, the Galileo Quartet. We'll be touring thanks to the international competitions we'll have won, giving a few concerts as soloists, and I'll have a violin teaching position somewhere, passing on the experience I'll have gained over the years. I will also obtain French citizenship and start looking to buy an apartment near Paris, because let's be realistic, buying an apartment in Paris is not feasible for a humble musician like me, but maybe one day... who knows?

Interview conducted in 2025
Photographs taken by Isabelle Chapuis in 2025