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Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Piano

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“Sophistication and suavity, both clarity and freedom”
(The New York Times)

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Artist-in-Residence: Colburn School

For more than three decades, Jean-Yves Thibaudet has performed worldwide, recorded more than 50 albums, and built a reputation as one of today’s finest pianists. He plays a range of solo, chamber, and orchestral repertoire – from Beethoven through Liszt, Grieg, and Saint- Saëns, to Khachaturian and Gershwin, and to Olivier Messiaen, Qigang Chen, James MacMillan, Richard Dubugnon, and Aaron Zigman.

From the very start of his career, he has delighted in music beyond the standard repertoire, from jazz to opera, including works which he has transcribed himself for the piano. His profound professional friendships crisscross the globe and have led to spontaneous and fruitful collaborations in film, fashion, and visual art.

Thibaudet has a lifelong passion for education and fostering young musical talent. He is the first-ever Artist-in-Residence at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where he makes his home. In 2017, the school announced the Jean-Yves Thibaudet Scholarships, funded by members of Colburn’s donor community, to provide aid for Music Academy students, whom Thibaudet will select for the merit-based awards, regardless of their instrument choice.

Thibaudet records exclusively for Decca; his extensive catalogue has received two Grammy nominations, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Diapason d’Or, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Edison Prize, and Gramophone awards. His most recent album, 2021’s Carte Blanche, features a collection of deeply personal solo piano pieces never before recorded by the pianist. Other highlights from Thibaudet’s catalogue include a 2017 recording of Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Marin Alsop, with whom he previously recorded Gershwin, featuring big band jazz orchestrations of Rhapsody in Blue, the Concerto in F, and the original version of Variations on I Got Rhythm. In 2016, on the 150^th anniversary of Erik Satie’s birth, Decca released a box set of Satie’s complete solo piano music performed by Thibaudet – one of the foremost champions of the composer’s works. On his Grammy-nominated recording Saint- Saëns, Piano Concerti Nos. 2&5, released in 2007, he is joined by Charles Dutoit and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Thibaudet’s Aria – Opera Without Words, which was released the same year, features aria transcriptions, some of which are Thibaudet’s own. His other recordings include the jazz albums Reflections on Duke: Jean-Yves Thibaudet Plays the Music of Duke Ellington and Conversations With Bill Evans.

Thibaudet © KLASSIK Underground

Thibaudet has also had an impact on the worlds of fashion, film, and philanthropy. He was soloist on Aaron Zigman’s score for Robin Swicord’s Wakefield; this was the first time that the composer had allowed a pianist other than himself to perform his film work. He was also soloist in Dario Marianelli’s award-winning scores for the films Atonement (which won an Oscar for Best Original Score) and Pride and Prejudice, as well as Alexandre Desplat’s soundtracks for the 2012 film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Wes Anderson’s 2021 film The French Dispatch. He had a cameo in Bruce Beresford’s film on Alma Mahler, Bride of the Wind, and his playing is showcased throughout. In 2004 he served as president of the prestigious charity auction at the Hospices de Beaune. His concert wardrobe is designed by Dame Vivienne Westwood.

Jean-Yves Thibaudet was born in Lyon, France, where he began his piano studies at age five and made his first public appearance at age seven. At twelve, he entered the Paris Conservatory to study with Aldo Ciccolini and Lucette Descaves, a friend and collaborator of Ravel. At age fifteen, he won the Premier Prix du Conservatoire and, three years later, the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York City. Among his numerous commendations is the Victoire d’Honneur, a lifetime career achievement award and the highest honour given by France’s Victoires de la Musique. In 2010 the Hollywood Bowl honoured Thibaudet for his musical achievements by inducting him into its Hall of Fame. Previously a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Thibaudet was awarded the title Officier by the French Ministry of Culture in 2012. In 2020, he was named Special Representative for the promotion of French Creative and Cultural Industries in Romania. He is co-artistic director, with Gautier Capuçon, of the Festival Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot.

Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.16 - I.Allegro II parte Jean-Yves Thibaudet Gustavo Dudamel © SinfonicaJuvenilTC

The GMJO with Philippe Jordan at the Semperoper Dresden: Episode 6 © Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester

Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No.5 - Thibaudet / Concertgebouw Orchestra - Live Concert HD © AVROTROS Klassiek

“There was plenty of Mr. Thibaudet’s trademark refinement in his playing of lacy, ruminative, lyrical passages. He dispatched bursts of arpeggios and spiraling figures with virtuosic élan. Yet I especially liked the way he tore into vehement episodes: He tossed off bursts of double octaves with steely fortissimo sound, and brought earthy rawness to the driving left-hand chords and crunchy theme that opens the finale…”

(March 2019, New York Times)

“Having Jean-Yves Thibaudet as solo protagonist in Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand proved luxury casting indeed. Few keyboard artists embody Ravel’s blend of supple elegance and unbridled bravura so naturally and effortlessly. The French pianist’s limpid refinement in the lyrical sections was as neat and idiomatic as his explosive bursts were exciting. Thibaudet’s five-fingered virtuosity handled the leaping notes with such ease and fluency, one would swear that two hands were playing.”

(April 2018, Chicago Classical Review)

“No easier to let go of will be Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. Simply put, he was a titanic force, turning what might be perceived as a limitation into an expressive and technical opportunity…the pianist also a proved a digital wizard, voicing lines in his one hand the way Baroque masters play fugues with two. He did it all with obvious joy and seeming ease, too, unfurling melodies with the heavenly smoothness of a golden spinning wheel.”

(Cleveland, February 2018)

“But there was a firecracker in the middle of the evening: Franz Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto. Forsaking virtuosity for its own sake, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and de Waart laid out an Olympian conception of a work that is a study in contrasts and contradictions… (they) knew what they wanted to say and how to say it together, in a performance at once impassioned and restrained, with a firecracker’s punch and a candle’s glow.”

(San Diego Tribune, October 2017)

“star performers were welcomed, and they included … no less than Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Yuja Wang as the two-piano team in the (Mozart) double concerto. Thibaudet set a supremely suave tone. Wang’s responses were more adamant… This is an irresistible piano duo in the making.”

(LA Times, Sep 2017)

“Jean-Yves Thibaudet brings a genuine Jazz feeling to this piece [Gershwin Piano Concerto in F] somewhere between a classical piano concerto and sparkling improvisation….the cadenzas were sensitive and expressive…[and] the rhythmic explosion of the “Agitato” finale was stunning.”

(Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung, July 2017)

“The fusion of traditional form and American Jazz was performed by the star pianist Jean-Yves Thibuadet, who played not only with flawless technique but also with French elegance.”

(Bietigheimer Zeitung, July 2017)

“From the first delicate notes, his attitude was clear: no pianistic affectation. Instead — simple, yet with crystal clear touch”

(Westdeutsche Zeitung, June 2017)

“…one of the most formidable 20^th-century works: Messiaen’s mystical, ecstatic, 75-minute “Turangalila-symphonie.” The superb pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet played the daunting piano part commandingly.”

(New York Times, October 2016)

“Jean-Yves Thibaudet played the extensive piano part with extraordinary dexterity and riveting forcefulness, as well as with enthusiasm and captivating wit.”

(Classical Source, October 2016)

“Thibaudet played the jazzy, mercurial G Major Piano Concerto of Ravel…proving again the brilliance of his technique and his stylistic mastery of this repertoire. The piano, technically a percussion instrument, has seldom sounded less percussive. It’s hard to imagine this music emerging with more loving finesse and more exquisite detail.”

(The Seattle Times, June 2016)

“the prodigious Jean-Yves Thibaudet … was spectacular, lending French panache to the proceedings in an account that was both technically formidable and charged with energy and passion”

(Santa Barbara Independent, March 2016)

“Thibaudet returned for an impeccable rendition of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 5 in E flat major … In his natural flair and joyful engagement, Thibaudet appeared to play with pure spontaneity. Something wondrous occurred in the Adagio un poco mosso… a highlight of the evening. With the swelling of the strings, Beethoven’s resonating theme emerged. Then Thibaudet emerged, his notes transparent like sparkling stars on a cloudless night.”

(Bachtrack, January 2016)

“…a scintillating Age of Anxiety…has the poetic Jean-Yves Thibaudet as protagonist…Never be deceived by his flamboyance. He is the most soulful of players.”

(Gramophone, March 2017)

“The piano score was rendered with flair by Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who brought an energetic touch to the rollicking sections and a poetic limpidity to the moments of gossamer filigree.”

(The New York Times, August 2015)

“A complete triumph”

(The Boston Globe, August 2015)

“He’s a master colorist and a great communicator, able to reduce a large concert hall to an intimate chamber of intent listeners.”

(The Seattle Times, September 2015)

“The performance was so exuberant and inspired it was impossible not to be swept up in the work.”

(The New York Times, February 2015)