Olivier Chauzu, French virtuoso pianist, will compile for us a syllabus of pieces written by the most talented European composers: Liszt, Schumann, and Debussy.

Olivier Chauzu studied in the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique in Paris and was awarded the First Prize for Piano in the class of Gabriel Tacchino (1987), followed by the First Prize in Camber Music in the class of Jean Mouillère and Jean-Claude Pennetier (1988). He was then granted a scholarship to study at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada, where he gave a number of concerts and attended classes by reknown musicians such as Richard Goode, Paul Badura-Skoda, Anton Kuerti. Back in Europe in 1988, he joined –as top candidate– the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris in the Cycle de Perfectionnement and attended the piano class of Theodore Paraschivesko; he also worked with Leo Fleisher, Vitaly Margoulis and Dimitri Bashkirov. Pianist Catherine Collard noticed him and invited him to his first festivals.

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

Featured program:

Schumann, études en variations sur un thème de Beethoven (18')

Schumann, fantaisie (30')

Intermission

Chopin, 2e ballade (8')

César Franck, prélude choral et fugue (21')

Support by Toronto Arts Council wuth funding provided by the City of Toronto.