Jean-Yves Thibaudet, a native of Lyon who was born in 1961, began piano studies at the age of five and gave his first public performance at seven. Already in 1974 he was accepted at the Paris Conservatoire, where he received instruction from Aldo Ciccolini and Lucette Descaves, who had collaborated with Maurice Ravel. It was here that he laid the foundations for his celebrated interpretations of French music. In 1981 Thibaudet’s international career was launched when he won the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York and shortly after filled in for Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli at a concert. Since then he has collaborated with many leading orchestras, including the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the Cleveland Orchestra in the United States and, in Europe, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the London Symphony, and the Orchestre National de France. Thibaudet regularly gives recitals in major concert halls around the world. In the 2010-11 season alone he has performed in Berlin, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam, as well as at Carnegie Hall in New York and in several American cities. He has additionally completed a German tour with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Marek Janowski. Thibaudet’s discography includes more than 40 recordings of repertoire from the Romantics to Duke Ellington and has garnered such awards as the Diapason d’Or, the Echo Klassik, the Gramophone Award, and the Edison Prize. Most recently, in 2010, he released a recording of music by George Gershwin. Jean-Yves Thibaudet is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; for his lifetime career achievement he received the Victoire d’Honneur in 2007. In June 2010 he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.
LUERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 30 August 1995 in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly.
August 2011