Frederic Pelassy was born near Paris in 1972. His father, a professional clarinetist, had already passed on his love of music and some theoretical knowledge to him when, at the age of 6, he began studying the violin at the Créteil National School of Music.
By the time he was 12, he had completed these studies and given his first public concerts.
Having heard him play Paganini, Yehudi Menuhin helped develop his early career, even though he was still too young to compete for any award.
Between the ages of 14 and 16, he received formal prizes from the most outstanding foundations in France – namely the Menuhin Foundation, the Festival Musical d’Automne des Jeunes Interprètes, the Cziffra Foundation. He was also sponsored by the Philip Morris Foundation, laureate of the French Society of composers and the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition
He was 16 when he recorded his first CD.
In the meantime he kept pursuing his studies, both academic and musical.
In 1987 Sándor Végh accepted him among his students at the Salzburg Mozarteum, trusting him with a bow that had belonged to Joachim.
One year later, he was selected by Yehudi Menuhin and Alberto Lysy to enter the Gstaad International Yehudi Menuhin Music Academy. There he practised with both professors, becoming, at 16, the youngest member of the Camerata Lysy. On many occasions all over Europe, he was given the privilege of playing as a soloist alongside or under the direction of Yehudi Menuhin.
He later studied in Spain with Zakhar Bron and in America – with Mauricio Fuks in Montreal, Eric Rosenblith at the Boston New England Conservatory, which granted him a complete scholarship for preparing an “Artist Diploma”, and under Walter Levin at the Ravinia Steans Institute for Young Artists, which hosted him during two summers.
Within the space of two decades, Frederic Pelassy has performed in more than fifty countries around the world.
His discography comprises some thirty CDs, covering composers ranging from Albinoni to Prokofiev through Vivaldi, Bach, Haendel, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Paganini, Mendelssohn, Lalo, Brahms, Wieniawski, Saint-Saëns, Bruch, Tchaïkovski, Dvořák, Sarasate, Chausson, Ravel, Franck, Fauré, Debussy, Ysaÿe, Bartók ou Prokofiev. Some of his recordings seek to draw attention to unjustly forgotten French compositions such as Theodore Dubois Concerto for violin and orchestra (BNL 112964) or Darius Milhaud Suite for violin, clarinet and piano (Naxos 8.572278).
Over the past two decades, Frederic Pelassy has become actively involved in music education. He teaches violin in Paris at the Hector Berlioz Conservatory and he has been invited to give master-classes in many countries of Europe, Asia, Northern and Latin America. The summer courses he has been giving since 1998 at the Rencontres Musicales des Monts-Dore, in France, are always well attended.
He plays a violin made by the German violin-maker Stefan-Peter Greiner.