Born in Lyon, Aimard studied with Michel Strauss and Philippe Muller at the Conservatoire de Paris.
In 1992, she met Bernard Greenhouse, a student of Pablo Casals, a founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio, who became her master.
When it was published in early 1998, the Diapason magazine wrote: Valérie Aimard stood out two years ago with Kodaly's sonata for solo cello in which she affirmed a perfect mastery of the instrument in all expressive registers, and a stylistic requirement that gave hope for a continuation.
What amazes me first of all about Valérie Aimard is the material: a generous sound that radiates without ever seeking the effect for itself, an infallible sense of long phrasing.
And then she knows how to make Mendelssohn sing on the razor blade, with her puffs of enthusiasm and her veils of modesty: neither excessive romanticism nor stiffness[…][2]Aimard is a lecturer in Teacher Training at the 2nd cycle in the Pedagogy Department and teaches chamber music at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycles in the Classical and Contemporary Instrumental Disciplines Department of the Conservatoire de Paris.