" Olivier Chauzu, the master of colours " (Le Monde, 21 November 2006)

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" Much more than a good pianist: a true musician " (Gérard Gefen, Lettre du musicien n°93).

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" ... has managed to see through the picture postcard surface of this music to find its daring, and very modern, not to say, revolutionary, heart... Book III has more than any, with a chunky, if measured, El Polo, and an outstanding Lavapiés " (

Tom Deacon).

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" Davidsbündlertänze: a wonderful recording of perhaps Schumann's greatest piece. "

(Tom Deacon).

" The tempo follows the feeling of the music, rather than some preconceived notion of the music as a strict tempo indication. Here again this is very authentic Schumann, whose music is almost pure feeling or character, translated into sound. " (Tom Deacon).

 

 

A disciple of Gabriel Tacchino, Théodore Paraschivesko, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Christian Ivaldi and Gyorgy Sebok, Olivier Chauzu was trained in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris at the end of the 1980s.

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Discovered and encouraged from the age of fifteen by Yvonne Lefébure, Chauzu is drawn to those works where his interpretation brings to light a unifying musical idea. He is one of the few pianists to perform the complete Iberia of Isaac Albéniz, the complete works for piano of Paul Dukas, as well as the works of Maurice Ravel.

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He brought out a recording of Isaac Albéniz's Iberia under the Calliope-Harmonia Mundi label in January 2007 that received the Diapason d'Or for the outstanding recording by a new artist, was awarded four stars by the musical review Monde de la Musique, and which was described by Le Monde as " one of the most moving interpretations ever, for its depth, its mastery of timing, rythms and tone. " He has also brought out a recording of the complete piano works of Paul Dukas under the same label.

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He brouht out also a recording of Dukas piano pieces, and another one of Schumann, which was awarded five diapasons, four stars by the Monde de la Musique, "key of the year 2008" by Resmusica.

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" Master of the keyboard, [Chauzu] extracts from the depths of his instrument a totality of expression of such variety, so appropriate to his object, so rigorous and impeccable in both form and style, that one uncovers less the mark of a musician of ordinary gifts than one of the select few for whom a natural gift leads to nothing less than a redoubling of idiomatic mastery and of artistic vigilance. " (Resmusica, 31 March 2008).

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Olivier Chauzu was born 18 December 1963 in Libourne (France). He received in 2000 his Doctorate in Iberian Studies.

His studies at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique in Paris were crowned with the First Prize for Piano in the class of Gabriel Tacchino (1987), followed by First Prize in Chamber Music in the class of Jean Mouillère and of Jean-Claude Pennetier (1988). He was awarded a scholarship to study at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada, where he gave a number of concerts and attended classes by such renowned musicians and teachers as Richard Goode, Paul Badura-Skoda and Anton Kuerti.

 

Upon his return to Europe in 1988, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris as the top candidate in the Cycle de Perfectionnement in the piano class of Theodore Paraschivesko, where he also attended classes with Leo Fleisher, Vitaly Margoulis and Dimitri Bashkirov. During this period he gave concerts in Paris at the Salle Gaveau, the Théâtre du Jardin, the Musée d'Orsay, the Salle Cortot. He came to the notice of the pianist Catherine Collard, who invited him to her first festivals.

 

One encounter proved decisive in this period of the pianist's formation: Gyorgy Sebok, who, in one of the master class sessions organized as part of the summer cycle of the Banff Center in 1990, completed his training.

Olivier Chauzu was awarded prestigious distinctions in the Maria Canals international competition in Barcelona (1989) and the Yvonne Lefébure competition in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1990), where he was awarded the Prix Claude Debussy.

 

He tours France and the world playing as a soloist and in chamber music: he plays in Paris salle Gaveau, Théâtre de l’Athénée, Musée d'Orsay, Grand Salon des Invalides, salle Cortot, Théâtre du Jardin. He is included in the programs of big musical seasons (like Dijon Opera, Angers Theater, Nice, Royan, Tours, Le Mans…) and numerous provincial musique festivals : the Nuits du Suquet in Cannes, Festival Musique et Vin in Clos Vougeot, the festival of Perthuis in Provence, Musique en Côte Basque, the Debussy Festival of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, May Musical of Saujon, the Piano Festival of La Charité-sur-Loire, the Festival of La Dame des Aulnes, the piano festival of Châteauneuf-le-Rouge, piano festival of Wesserling, Festival d’Art Sacré in Dax... He also took part in festivals in Spain (Alteneo de Madrid, Teatro Palacio Euskalduna de Bilbao, Barcelona, Pamplona, Saint Sebastien), in Portugal (with the Radio National Antena 2), in Germany (festival of Nürenberg, Stuttgart, Schumann Festival in Bonn), in Sweden (Stockholm), in the Czech Republic (Prague), in Asia (Dubai, Abu Dhabi) and America (festival Music and beyond in Ottawa, Wolf Performance Hall in London), in Mexico.

 

He played with prestigious orchestras like the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (Canada), la Orquesta Filarmónica de Mexico, the Orchestre Symphonique de Nancy, l'Orchestre Régional de Bayonne-Côte Basque, with conductors Jérôme Kaltenbach, Kirk Muspratt, Victor Puhl, Philippe de Chalendar, Philippe Hui, Vincent Barthe, Robert Delcroix, Jean-Marc Burfin, Xavier Delette, José Miguel Rodilla, Marco Parisotto, Jean-Sébastien Béreau. Michel Tabachnik invites him to play with the the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra.

 

He has performed chamber music with pianist Nicolas Angelich, violinists Cho Liang Lin, Pierre Amoyal, the soloists of New York Metropolitan Opera, David Chan, Roland Daugareil, cellists Raphaël Perraud, Raphaël Pidoux, floutist Emmanuelle Ophèle, altist Claire Merlet, oboist François Leleux, clarinetist Staffan Martensson. singer Michèle Penna.

 

Olivier Chauzu is noteworthy for the extent and eclecticism of his repertory, which includes piano works from all periods of musical history, from Bach, Scarlatti and Padre Soler to the classical composers Mozart and Haydn, the nineteenth century (Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms), twentieth century (Debussy, Ravel, Albéniz, Granados, Stravinsky) to contemporary music by Stockhausen, Boulez, Ohana, Mompou and creations of actual pieces by Lucien Guérinel and Philippe Forget.

He currently offers a piano class in the Conservatoire National de Région de Bayonne