Francois Gizycki was born in Shanghai, China. He began to play the cello at 8 and moved to Paris at 13 to study at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris with Hélène Dautry. At the age of 15, he met the distinguished French professor Philippe Muller, who had recently retired from his position at the Conservatoire de Paris to begin teaching at Manhattan School of Music. Francois has received lessons from cellists such as Gary Hoffman, Maria Kliegel, Hans Jensen, Xavier Phillips, Troels Svane, Alban Gerhardt and Istvan Vardai. He has received coaching from Nicolas Mann, Daniel Avshalomov of the American String Quartet and Eugene Drucker of the Emerson String Quartet. He is currently pursuing his last year of his bachelor’s degree at Manhattan School of Music.
An avid chamber musician, he is regularly invited to the Lycée Français for New York to perform in the monthly Lunch Concert Series. He is a member of recently formed ensembles, Understaffed and Village Verein.
