Michel Beroff
- Jury member
- France
Born in France, Michel Beroff started his studies at the Nancy Conservatoire and then went on to the Paris Conservatoire, where he won first prize. He made his debut in Paris as a recitalist and was highly acclaimed. He then became the top-prize winner at the Olivier Messiaen International Piano Competition.
Michel Beroff has become one of the most highly regarded pianists performing the work of Messiaen, Beethoven, Brahms, Bartok, Prokofiev, Mozart, Debussy, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Schumann and Schubert. Michel Beroff has performed throughout the world with world-renown conductors including Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Dorati, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yutaka Sado, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Georg Solti and Tennstedt.
As a recitalist and a chamber musician he has worked with artists such as Pierre Amoyal, Jean-Philippe Collard, Augustin Dumay, Barbara Hendricks and Lynn Harrell. Michel Béroff also studied the art of conducting orchestras and piano repertoire for left hand.
In Europe, previous concerto works include performances of Bartok's Piano Concerto no. 2 with Pierre Boulez and the London Symphony Orchestra during the Boulez Festival in London and Paris. Michel Béroff performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a very important tour in England and Spain playing the Prokofiev Concerto no. 3. He was invited with the Orchestre National de France for concerts in Paris and in Athens with the conductor Yutaka Sado (Prokofiev Concerto no. 3). Michel Béroff has recently performed the Prokofiev Concerto no. 1 and 4 with the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach.
In the USA, Michel Béroff has been invited to open the New York Philharmonic season with the Stravinsky Cappricio under the baton of Kurt Masur.
In Asia, after very successful tours in Japan with orchestras such as the English Philharmonia (under the baton of E. P. Salonen), the NHK Symphony, the Japan Shinsei Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Phillharmonic, or the Osaka Philharmonic. Michel Béroff is regularly invited for varying series. He has recorded Le Bal Masque with Seiji Ozawa and Wolfgang Holzmair for Philips Classics.
After a tour in June 2003, Michel Béroff went to Korea for a recital and concerts with the KBS orchestra.
Among his discography: the recording of the complete works for piano and orchestra by Prokofiev with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Kurt Masur for EMI, Stravinsky and Liszt, as well as other works by Messiaen, Schumann, Brahms and Debussy. He has recorded the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand with the London Symphony Orchestra and Claudio Abbado for Deutsche Grammophone.