PIANO
Philippe CASSARD

His early teachers were Dominique Merlet, Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux, Hans Graf and the legendary Nikita Magaloff .

Cassard’s career began in 1985 following a joint recital with Christa Ludwig in Paris. The same year he was finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition.

In 1988 he was awarded First Prize Winner at the Dublin
International Competition.

He appeared with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Irlande, Danish Radio Orchestra, Budapest Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège...

He has worked with great conductors, such as Jeffrey Tate, Charles Dutoit, Pascal Tortelier, Rico Saccani, Vladimir Fedoseijev, Sir Alexander Gibson, etcPhilippe Cassard has played in Australia, USA, South America, Russia, Japan, China and almost every countries in Europe.

He dedicates some of his time to chamber music and he has performed with Julian Rachlin, Raphaël Oleg, Wolfgang Holzmair, Isabelle Van Keulen, Michel Portal, Laurent Korcia, Donna Brown, Anne Gastinel, Matt Haimovitz, and the Takacs, Vanbrugh, Chilingirian, Lindsay, Ysaÿe, Castagneri, Vogler String Quartets.Lindsay, Takacs and Ysaÿe String Quartets.

Philippe Cassard is one of Debussy’s finest interpreters and he has played the complete piano pieces in one day and four recitals with huge success at the London Wigmore Hall, Paris, Marseille, Tokyo, Lisbon, Dublin, Besançon, Singapore and Sydney.His recording of Debussy’s piano work was awarded “Grand Prix de l’ Académie du Disque Français”. He has also recorded with cellist Matt Haimovitz for Deutsche Grammophon.n 2002, a Schubert piano solo recital and a programme of songs on poems by Victor Hugo with the french soprano Marie Devellereau were released by Ambroisie. Both were unanimously welcomed by international critic.In February 2005, his recording of Schumann's Humoresque, Fantasiestücke op.12 and Kinderszenen was awarded Gramophone's Editor's Choice.

Philippe Cassard is artistic director of one of the major music festivals in France : Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget, Savoy. In 2006, guests artists were Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dame Felicity Lott, Moraguès Wind Quintet, actors Jean-Claude Dreyfus and Judith Magre, pianists Roger Muraro and Cédric Tiberghien etc.

Since 2005, Philippe Cassard is also producer of a very popular weekly live programme on France Musique Radio "Notes du Traducteur", based on the interpretation of piano music.

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