Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Born in Lyon in 1961, Jean-Yves Thibaudet began his piano training at the age of five and gave his first public performance when he was seven. He was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire in 1974, when he was only twelve; his teachers included Aldo Ciccolini and Lucette Descaves, a former collaborator with Maurice Ravel. It was here that he laid the foundations for his acclaimed interpretations of French music. Thibaudet’s international career began when he won the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York in 1981 and shortly thereafter filled in for Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli at a concert. Since then he has performed with the most distinguished orchestras in the Old and New Worlds. He begins the 2023-24 season in collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on a European tour that, in addition to Lucerne, will take him to Ljubljana, Cologne, and Paris. He will perform Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, Ravel’s Concerto in G with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and Juraj Valčuha, Scriabin’s Prométhée with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the Piano Concerto No. 5 (Egyptian) by Saint-Saëns with the Pittsburgh and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. As a chamber musician, he is completing a tour with Lisa Batiashvili and Gautier Capuçon. Thibaudet also seeks out creative collaborations involving film, fashion, and the visual arts. His discography includes more than 50 CDs, many of them award winning, which cover repertoire ranging from Romanticism to Duke Ellington and film music; his most recent release was the 2021 album Carte blanche and features personal favorites. Together with Gautier Capu-çon, he directs the festival Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot. He is also artist-in-residence at the Colburn School in Los Angeles and Special Representative for the promotion of French Creative and Cultural Industries in Romania. Jean-Yves Thibaudet was awarded the title Officier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012.

Lucerne Festival (IMF) debut on 30 August 1995 playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly.

July 2023