Guest artist

Abdel Rahman El Bacha

Piano

"Abdel Rahman el Bacha possesses to the supreme degree the art of reaching the essential, thus revealing the backbone of a composer's style and the innervations running from this central 'tree' and irrigating its evolution." Sylviane Falcinelli

Born in Beirut into a family of musicians, Abdel Rahman El Bacha began studying piano in 1967 with Zvart Sarkissian, a pupil of Marguerite Long and Jacques Février. At the age of 10, he gave his first concert with an orchestra. In 1973, Claudio Arrau predicted a great career for him, and in 1974, France, the Soviet Union and England offered him a scholarship. He chose France out of cultural affinity, and entered Pierre Sancan's class at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris, where he won four Premiers Prix (piano, chamber music, harmony and counterpoint).

Since the dazzling revelation of his talent at the Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium at the age of 19, which he won unanimously, he has performed in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe and the world. From the Mozarteum in Salzburg to the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to the Herkulessaal in Munich, he appears as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Gulbenkian Lisbon Orchestra, the NHK Tokyo, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande....

His discography is extensive: In 1983, Abdel Rahman El Bacha was personally awarded the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros by Sergei Prokofiev for the first Prokofiev works published by Forlane. For the same label, he records Bach concertos, Ravel concertos, works by Schumann, Ravel, Schubert and Rachmaninov. CDs featuring works by Prokofiev and Beethoven's complete piano sonatas have been published by Mirare and recorded on a C. Bechstein D 282 concert grand.