Nathalie Béra-Tagrine (born 15 February 1960) is a French classical pianist of Russian descent.

Early life and career

Born in

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the Parisian area, located from its Kilometre zero, centre. It is a Subprefectures in ...

, Béra-Tagrine learned to play the piano from the age of 3 1/2 under her mother's direction, pianist

Nadia Tagrine Nadia Tagrine (13 July 1917 – 1 June 2003) was a Franco-Russian classical pianist. Biography Born in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, Tagrine learns the piano with two Russian refugee pianists, Lubochitz and Kamtchattoff then at the Conser ...

. At eleven years old, finishing her schooling with a 1st prize at the

Schola Cantorum de Paris The Schola Cantorum de Paris is a private conservatory in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera. History La Schola was founded i ...

in the class of Nadia Tagrine, she entered the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

in the specialized solfeggio class of Berthe Duru where she obtained a 1st medal. The same year, she won a 1st prize unanimously in Superior at the "Kingdom of Music". This prize offered her the opportunity to play at the

Salle Pleyel The Salle Pleyel (, meaning "Pleyel Hall") is a concert hall in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, designed by acoustician Gustave Lyon together with architect Jacques Marcel Auburtin, who died in 1926, and the work was completed in 1927 by ...

in Paris as soloist with the orchestra of the ORTF, under the direction of . The year she turned twelve, she was unanimously awarded the Prix d'honneur at the national competition and a few months later entered first nominated in the Conservatory's higher piano classes of

Lucette Descaves Lucette Descaves (1 April 1906 – 15 April 1993) was a French pianist and teacher, whose pupils included Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Geneviève Joy, Brigitte Engerer, Pascal Rogé, and Katia and Marielle Labèque. Biography Born in Paris, daughter o ...

. She also followed the teaching of

Jean Hubeau Jean Hubeau (22 June 191719 August 1992) was a French pianist, composer and pedagogue known especially for his recordings of Gabriel Fauré, Robert Schumann and Paul Dukas, which are recognized as benchmark versions. Biography Admitted at t ...

in chamber music,

Jacqueline Robin Jacqueline Robin (; 11 December 1917 in Saint-Astier, Dordogne – 3 February 2007 in Taverny) was a French pianist. Born Jacqueline Pangnier, she also performed as Jacqueline Bonneau. She entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of ten, and o ...

in deciphering, Françoise Rieunier in

musical analysis Musical analysis is the study of musical structure in either compositions or performances. According to music theorist Ian Bent, music analysis "is the means of answering directly the question 'How does it work?'". The method employed to answer ...

and Jeannine Rueff as well as

Roger Boutry Roger Jean Boutry (27 February 1932 – 7 September 2019) was a French composer and conductor. Biography Born in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, he resided in Paris. A virtuoso pianist, renowned and internationally recognized conductor, in ...

for

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

. In the following years, she played several times at the

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées () is an entertainment venue standing at 15 avenue Montaigne in Paris. It is situated near Avenue des Champs-Élysées, from which it takes its name. Its eponymous main hall may seat up to 1,905 people, while th ...

in the framework of the "", in recital or with orchestra. At sixteen, she won 1st prizes at the Conservatoire for piano and for chamber music. At seventeen, she won the First Prize at the

Cleveland International Piano Competition The Cleveland International Piano Competition is an American piano competition that takes place biennially in Cleveland, Ohio. The initial Competition in 1975 and the nine others that followed were sponsored jointly by the Robert Casadesus Society ...

(USA). The same year she was received at the Conservatory in cycle of perfection of piano (class of

Ventsislav Yankov Ventsislav Yankov ( bg, Венцислав Янков) (24 March 1926 – 8 January 2022) was a Bulgarian pianist and pedagogue. He was born in Sofia on 24 March 1926. Trained in Berlin, he settled in France in 1946; three years later he won ex-a ...

, assistant Nadia Tagrine) and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

(class of

). Her young career was then enriched by numerous engagements in France and abroad (Europe, the United States, Japan) as well as broadcasts in various French and international radio and television stations. While continuing to work with Nadia Tagrine, she enriched her repertoire through meetings with masters such as

György Sebők György Sebők (November 2, 1922 – November 14, 1999) was a Hungarian-born American pianist and professor at the Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. He was known worldwide as a soloist with major ...

Vlado Perlemuter Vladislas "Vlado" Perlemuter (26 May 1904 – 4 September 2002) was a Lithuanian-born French pianist and teacher. Biography Vladislas (Vlado) Perlemuter was born to a Polish Jewish family, the third of four sons, in Kovno, Russia (now Kaunas in Li ...

Manuel Rosenthal Manuel Rosenthal (18 June 1904 – 5 June 2003) was a French composer and conductor who held leading positions with musical organizations in France and America. He was friends with many contemporary composers, and despite a considerable list of c ...

Gaby Casadesus Gaby Casadesus (August 9, 1901 – November 12, 1999) was a French classical pianist and teacher born in Marseilles, France. She was married to the French pianist Robert Casadesus and their son Jean was also a notable pianist. Biography Born ...

Lili Kraus Lili Kraus (3 April 19036 November 1986) was a Hungarian-born pianist. Biography Lili Kraus was born in Budapest in 1903. Her father was from Czech Lands, and her mother from an assimilated Jewish Hungarian family. She enrolled at the Franz L ...

Dmitri Bashkirov Dmitri Aleksandrovich Bashkirov (russian: Дми́трий Алекса́ндрович Башки́ров; November 1, 1931 – March 7, 2021) was a Russian pianist and academic teacher. Trained in his hometown Tbilisi and Moscow, he began an in ...

and

Sulamita Aronovsky Sulamita Aronovsky, born in Lithuania in 1929, died in 2022, is a classical pianist and piano teacher who spent her formative years in Russia, moving to London in 1971. Her teachers include Lev Barenboim, Abram Schatzkes, Grigory Ginsburg and ...

Awards and recognitions

Other awards will be added to her list of achievements: * 1977 - Artist-soloist of

Radio France Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety of ...

. * 1979 - 2nd prize of the

Épinal International Piano Competition The Épinal International Piano Competition is a biannual piano competition held in Épinal Épinal (; german: Spinal) is a commune in northeastern France and the prefecture of the Vosges department. Geography The commune has a land area of ...

. * 1981 - Grand prix

Bruce Hungerford Bruce Hungerford (24 November 192226 January 1977), known for the majority of his career as Leonard Hungerford, was an Australian pianist. Biography Born in Korumburra, Victoria, Bruce Hungerford was originally named Leonard Sinclair Hungerfo ...

at the ''Young Concert Artists'' in New York city - (USA) * 1983 - 1st nominated at the

Clara Haskil International Piano Competition The Clara Haskil Piano Competition (French: Concours international de piano Clara Haskil) was founded in 1963 in order to honour and perpetuate the memory the Romanian-Swiss pianist Clara Haskil. The competition is a member of the World Federati ...

(

Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...

Vevey Vevey (; frp, Vevê; german: label=former German, Vivis) is a town in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne. The German name Vivis is no longer commonly used. It was the seat of the district of ...

) * 1983 - 3rd grand prix of the Chopin competition of

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

(Spain) Married since 1979 to Bertrand Mercier, a Polytechnician engineer and Doctor of Science, she spent 25 years as an international concert performer, mother of four children and teacher. She is the soloist for major orchestras such as the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Sev ...

and the Orchestre national de Lille and performs among others, under the direction of

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (, March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in th ...

Jean-Claude Casadesus Jean-Claude Probst (born 7 December 1935), known professional as Jean-Claude Casadesus, is a French conductor. Biography Casadesus was born in Paris on 7 December 1935, the son of actress Gisèle Casadesus and her husband Lucien Pascal. He beg ...

Philippe Bender Philippe Bender (born 25 February 1942 in Besançon, France) is a French flautist and conductor. In 1976, he was appointed artistic director and permanent chef of the He is also titular conductor and artistic director of the Orchestre sympho ...

Sylvain Cambreling Sylvain Cambreling (born 2 July 1948 in Amiens, France) is a French conductor. Biography Trained as a trombone player, Cambreling studied at the Paris Conservatoire. He joined l' Orchestre Symphonique de Lyon (OSL) as a trombonist in 1971. In 19 ...

, Paul Staicu and . Her chamber music partners are flutists

Jean-Pierre Rampal Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal (7 January 1922 – 20 May 2000) was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century." Biography Ea ...

and Shigenuri Kudo, cellists

Maurice Baquet Maurice Louis Baquet (26 May 1911 – 8 July 2005) was a French actor and cellist. He was born in Villefranche-sur-Saône and died in Noisy-le-Grand.Dominique de Williencourt Dominique de Williencourt is a French cellist and composer, born in Lille in 1959. Works * ''Abraham and Isaac'', opus 7, for baritone, flute and string orchestra. First performed in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, February 2007 * ...

, Cécilia Tsan, violinists Alexandre Schneider,

Devy Erlih Devy Erlih (Paris, 5 November 1928 – Paris, 7 February 2012) was a French violinist and the 1955 winner of the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition, Long-Thibaud competition. Background Erlih was born in France in 1928 to first-generation immigrants ...

Olivier Charlier Olivier Charlier (born 17 February 1961) is a French classical violinist. He plays on a violin by Carlo Bergonzi dated 1747. Biography Charlier was born in Albert, Somme and admitted at the age of 10 to the Conservatoire de Paris where he at ...

, Annick Roussin, violinist

Geneviève Laurenceau Geneviève Laurenceau (born 2 November 1977) is a French classical violinist. She was a supersoloist with the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse from 2007 to 2017. Life Born in Strasbourg, Laurenceau began playing the violin at the ...

, harpist

Lily Laskine Lily Laskine (31 August 1893 in Paris – 4 January 1988 in Paris) was one of the most prominent harpists of the twentieth century. Born Lily Aimée Laskine to Jewish parents in Paris, she studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Alphonse Hasse ...

, and soprano Ariane Douguet. Since 2000, she has gradually moved away from the international scene to devote more time to her children and the teaching that fascinates her. In September 2011 and June 2012, volumes 1 and 2 of the Tagrine Method were published by Van de Velde which pass on the teaching she received from her mother. She composed the pieces. In January 2016, four collections containing 21 "Pièces récréatives" were published by Van de Velde publisher that complement the Tagrine Method. In October 2017, was published a piece for piano: ''Terminal 2'' (Van de Velde).

Press excerpts

"Nathalie Béra-Tagrine took the measure of the work (''Fantaisie de Schumann'') and the mastery from one end to the other, alternating shadow and light, tension and rest with a perfectly controlled sound...".

Claude Pascal Claude Pascal (Paris, February 19, 1921 – Paris, February 28, 2017) was a French composer.Marc Honegger, ''Dictionnaire de la musique: Tome 2, Les Hommes et leurs œuvres. L-Z.'' ed. Bordas 1979, p. 834. () After studying at the Conservatoire ...

- ''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...

''. "Her playing is deeply sensitive, searching for what lies behind the notes and often reveals unexpected charms in a familiar score. A delightful touch, an airy technique, a deep power: Nathalie Béra-Tagrine kept us in suspense." Pierre Petit – ''Le Figaro''. "There is no mistake, Nathalie Béra-Tagrine is an ideal artist, in the most demanding acceptance of this term! - . Edgard Feder - France-Amérique – (New York city) "Nathalie Béra-Tagrine knew not to present the tormented pages of Chopin's 4th ballad only as a skillful virtuoso but to make us suffer the deep truth and recreate them from within. A.Burkhalker – Feuille d’avis de Vevey "The French revelation of

. In 1979, her performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.3 at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes left the audience with an extraordinary impression of technical quality, combined with surprising intelligence, authority and depth. Four years later, it is still with Beethoven that she conquered Montreux. In the 1st concerto this time, she supported its formal density and emotional richness from the first to the last bar. It emanates from her play a kind of ardent and controlled jubilation at the same time."

Selected discography

* 1982 - 33rpm: Chabrier - Fauré - Ravel - Satie - Milhaud (Pianissime.) * 1990 - CD: Chopin - Liszt (Vogue) * 1992-2000 - CD: Scriabine: 3 pièces op 2 - Intégrale des mazurkas op 3-4 études op 8. (Adda) * 1994 - CD Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit - Sonatine - Jeux d'eau - Oiseaux tristes. (Vibrato Musique)VIB 09401 * 1995-2000 - CD "Piano-Passion": pièces diverses: Schubert - Chopin - Schumann - Liszt - Mendelssohn - Pierné - Scriabine. (Vibrato Musique - NBT001)

References

External links

La méthode Tagrine

Discography
at Discogs
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- Nathalie Bera-Tagrine(YouTube) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bera-Tagrine, Nathalie 1960 births 21st-century French women classical pianists Conservatoire de Paris alumni French music educators Living people People from Boulogne-Billancourt Schola Cantorum de Paris alumni Women music educators