Bertrand Chamayou

Bertrand Chamayou is one of today’s most strikingly brilliant pianists, recognised for his revelatory performances at once powerfully virtuosic, imaginative and breathtakingly beautiful. A leading interpreter of French music, his vast repertoire includes major bodies of work such as the complete piano works of Ravel, Liszt’s Etudes and Années de pèlerinage, and Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus. At the same time the French pianist possesses a deep passion for new music, having worked with composers including Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, György Kurtág, Thomas Adès, Bryce Dessner and Michael Jarrell.

Chamayou performs at the highest level, appearing regularly at the world’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals, from Philharmonie de Paris, Wigmore Hall, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Elbphilharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, to Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Festival, New York’s Mostly Mozart and Suntory Hall Tokyo. He has performed with the world’s finest orchestras, including New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig’s Gewandhausorchester, Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Wiener Symphoniker, Tonhalle Orchestre Zurich, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and has shared the stage with Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Philippe Herreweghe, François-Xavier Roth, Herbert Blomstedt, Sir Antonio Pappano and Elim Chan.

This season sees Chamayou appear with London Symphony Orchestra and François-Xavier Roth, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Pablo Heras-Casado, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Lorenzo Viotti, SWR Symphonieorchester and Brad Lubman, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov, Orchestre de Paris and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, among many others. He also performs extensively with his regular chamber partner, cellist Sol Gabetta.

June 2022 sees Chamayou release his new recording of Messiaen’s masterpiece, Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus (Erato). He gives performances of the complete work at Paris’ Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, la Roque d’Anthéron and Festival Ravel, the major new festival situated in France’s Basque country of which Chamayou is co-Artistic Director.

In 2019 Bertrand Chamayou won the Gramophone Award for Recording of the Year for his album of Saint-Saëns on Erato, for whom he is an exclusive recording artist. His multi award-winning discography also includes Ravel’s complete works for piano, which won the 2016 Klassik Award, and Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, which won Album of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. He is the only artist to have received a prestigious Victoires de la Musique Classique award on four separate occasions.