Bertrand Chamayou is one of today’s most strikingly brilliant pianists, recognised for his revelatory performances that are at once powerfully virtuosic, imaginative and breathtakingly beautiful. A leading interpreter of French music, his vast repertoire includes major bodies of work such as the complete piano works of Ravel, Liszt’s Etudes and Années de pèlerinage, and Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus. Simultaneously, the French pianist possesses a deep passion for new music, having worked with composers including Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, György Kurtág, Thomas Adès, Bryce Dessner and Michael Jarrell.
After performing the complete solo piano works of Ravel at major summer festivals (Festival Radio France in Montpellier, La Roque d’Anthéron, Festival de Musique de Menton), Chamayou open the 2025/26 season by appearing at the Lucerne Festival with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Karina Canellakis in Unsuk Chin’s Piano Concerto, before opening the 2025 edition of his own Festival Ravel in Saint-Jean-de-Luz.
The season continues with a series of major engagements: Orchestre National de France and Lorenzo Viotti, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Thomas Adès, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse with Tarmo Peltokoski in Turangalîla which he will reprise later in the season with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Danish National Symphony; as well as Gothenburg Symphony with Barbara Hannigan, Singapore Symphony under Pierre Bleuse, the Antwerp Symphony and the Philharmonia Orchestra. He also appears with the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sakari Oramo in London and on tour in China, the Atlanta Symphony with Philippe Jordan, the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt with Dalia Stasevska, among many others. Chamayou continues his acclaimed duo partnership with Barbara Hannigan, appearing in major European venues including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Bozar Brussels, Madrid and Bari, before touring with Leif Ove Andsnes to mark the release of their new album on Warner/Erato. Chamayou will also perform in duo with Antoine Tamestit in London and at the Vienna Musikverein while continuing his long-standing collaboration with Sol Gabetta.
Bertrand Chamayou performs with the many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, the orchestras of Cleveland, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Atlanta, Montreal, Vienna and London; Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Orchestre National de France and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and the radio orchestras in Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne and Copenhagen, as well as the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He has had the privilege of playing under the baton of Pierre Boulez and Sir Neville Marriner and works with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Mikko Franck, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Krzysztof Urbanski, Philippe Herreweghe and Gianandrea Noseda, Philippe Jordan, Andris Nelsons, François-Xavier Roth, Tugan Sokhiev, Sir Antonio Pappano and Elim Chan.
A highly regarded chamber musician, Chamayou’s partners include Sol Gabetta, Barbara Hannigan, Vilde Frang, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Leif Ove Andsnes, the Quatuor Ebène and Antoine Tamestit. Deeply committed to new repertoire, he has also worked with Henri Dutilleux and György Kurtág and, more recently, with Thomas Adès, Bryce Dessner and Michaël Jarrell, who dedicated his latest piano concerto to him.
Bertrand Chamayou published a large number of highly acclaimed recordings, including a Naïve recording of music by César Franck, which received several accolades. For his recording of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concertos Nos.2 and 5, he was awarded the Gramophone Recording of the Year 2019. The only artist to win France's prestigious Victoires de la Musique on five occasions, he has an exclusive recording contract with Warner/Erato and was awarded the 2016 ECHO Klassik for his recording of Ravel’s complete works for solo piano.
Born in Toulouse, Chamayou’s musical talent was quickly recognised by pianist Jean-François Heisser, who later became his professor at the Paris Conservatoire. He completed his training with Maria Curcio in London. Bertrand Chamayou is the artistic director of the Ravel Festival, a major international festival celebrating Maurice Ravel in the Basque Country, around Saint-Jean-de-Luz (France).
As of June 2026
