Eric Ferrand-N`Kaoua (Piano)
French pianist Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua was born near Paris in 1963 and spent
his early childhood in Grenoble in the French Alps. He soon
entered the Paris Conservatoire Supйrieur, where he obtained first prize
with distinction in piano when aged only fourteen.
A finalist and prize-winner at the Clara Haskil and Santander
Competitions, he was invited to appear at the Yokohama Piano Festival
before he was twenty years old and was subsequently engaged as a soloist by
several Japanese orchestras such as the New Japan Philharmonic.
Collaborations with musicians from the former Soviet Union, such as
the USSR State Symphony Orchestra under Vladimir Kozhukhar in 1988 and
the Moscow Soloists under Yuri Bashmet, later allowed him to perform
on several occasions in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Kiev. Critics have often
praised his natural sense of phrasing and colour, as well as his ability
to bring the music rather than himself to the foreground.
In search of musical truth along sometimes unusual paths, he is not
afraid to blend Stravinsky and jazz-inspired pieces in the same
programme. The great jazz pianist and composer Martial Solal also entrusted
him with being the soloist of his unpublished concerto
Йchanges, mixing written and improvised sections as well as for
recording a CD of his works featuring several world premieres.
Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua is also an avid chamber music performer. His
partners include several famous violinists such as Pierre Amoyal, Valeriy
Sokolov and Gilles Apap, with whom he forms an unconventional duo. With
soloists from the Ensemble of Corsica he formed a piano and
strings sextet, allowing him to play “pocket orchestra” versions
of various concerti.
Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua has performed at such prestigious concert venues as
the Theвtre du Chвtelet in Paris and Wigmore Hall in London. He
has recorded the Liszt Sonata, a recital of French music and
a Bach CD featuring the Goldberg Variations, and has premiered works
by Thierry Lancino and Nicolas Bacri. Frequently invited by the Berlioz
Festival in the composer’s hometown near Grenoble, he has also become
a regular guest of the Miami International Piano Festival.
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