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

Background and education

Béroff was born at

Épinal Épinal (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune in northeastern France and the prefecture of the Vosges (department), Vosges Departments of France, department. Geography The commune has a land area of . It is situated on the river Moselle, so ...

, and trained at the Nancy Conservatory, winning the 1st prize in 1962 and the prize of excellence in 1963. He completed his studies at the

Paris Conservatory The Conservatoire de Paris (), or 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 Jean Ja ...

with Pierre Sancan, 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. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

competition in

Royan Royan (; in the Saintongeais dialect; ) is a commune and town in the south-west of France, in the Departments of France, department of Charente-Maritime in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Capital of the Côte de Beauté, Royan is one of the mai ...

. Thereafter he toured extensively internationally and performed with most of the major orchestras and as a recitalist. He has recorded extensively for

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

in works by

Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

, J.S. Bach,

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

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

Seong-Jin Cho Seong-Jin Cho (; born May 28, 1994) is a South Korean concert pianist. He was the winner of the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition, the first from the country. Since then, he has regularly performed recital programs in major venues an ...

References

Bibliography

* 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 20th-century French 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 21st-century French classical pianists 20th-century French conductors (music) 21st-century French conductors (music) {{France-artist-stub