Michel Béroff (born 9 May 1950) is a French pianist and conductor of Bulgarian origin.

Background and education

Béroff was born at Épinal, and trained at the Nancy, France, Nancy Conservatory, winning the 1st prize in 1962 and the prize of excellence in 1963. He completed his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatory with

Yvonne Loriod Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen (; 20 January 1924 – 17 May 2010) was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod. Biography Loriod ...

, winning the 1st prize in 1966.

Career

In 1967 he made his Paris debut and won 1st prize in the

Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century. His m ...

competition in

Royan Royan (; in the Saintongeais dialect; oc, Roian) is a commune and town in the south-west of France, in the department of Charente-Maritime in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Its inhabitants are known as ''Royannais'' and ''Royannaises''. Capi ...

. Thereafter he toured extensively internationally and performed with most of the major orchestras and as a recitalist. He completed acclaimed Southern Africa tours in 1972 and 1975. He has recorded extensively for

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

in works by

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

J.S. Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suite ...

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

, Bartók and Messiaen. He has also turned to conducting.Fondation Bell'Arte
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Notable students

* Seong-Jin Cho

References

* Baker's Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Classical Musicians, N. Slonimsky, Schirmer Books, 1997 1950 births Living people People from Épinal 20th-century French male classical pianists French male conductors (music) Conservatoire de Paris alumni Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists 21st-century French male classical pianists 20th-century French conductors (music) 21st-century French conductors (music) {{France-artist-stub