François-Frédéric Guy

Francois-Frederic Guy is regarded as one of the most fascinating pianists of his generation. He has performed worldwide with many important orchestras such as the Berlin Symphony, Halle, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse and San Francisco Symphony, to name just a few. He collaborated with world renowned conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bernard Haitink, Kazushi Ono, Marc Albrecht, Philippe Jordan, Daniel Harding, Neeme Jarvi and Michael Tilson Thomas. In recital he has performed in the major concert halls in cities including London, Milan, Berlin, Munich, Moscow, Paris, Vienna and Washington, and at festivals including La Roque d?Antheron, Chopin in Warsaw, International Beethoven Festival Bonn, Lucerne, AlpenKLASSIK in Bad Reichenhall, as well as Festival International de Colmar, Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, La Roque d?Antheron International Piano Festival and Cheltenham Festival. In 2008 Guy embarked on a major Beethoven project that has included recording and performing in concert all 32 Beethoven Sonatas and the 5 Piano Concertos. Guy is a dedicated chamber musician and he regularly performs Beethoven?s chamber music for strings and piano as well, with Tedi Papavrami and Xavier Phillips. As part of the Beethoven project, Guy has performed the complete cycle of 32 Sonatas in Washington, Paris, Monaco and recently at the Festival Berlioz in La Cote-Saint-Andre (August 2013). In October 2013 the box with the live recording of the complete 32 sonatas will be released by the French label Zig-Zag Territoires. Zig-Zag has released a highly acclaimed Liszt album as well, containing the Harmonies poetiques et religieuses and the Sonata in B minor. His previous recordings for Naive Classique have included music of Beethoven, Brahms and Prokofiev. For Chandos he will be recording an album together with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. In addition to his admiration of Beethoven ? whom he describes as ?the Alpha and Omega of music? ? he has special affinities with the music of Bartok, Brahms, Liszt and Prokofiev and a strong commitment to contemporary music with close links to composers such as Ivan Fedele, Marc Monnet, Gerard Pesson, Bruno Mantovani and Hugues Dufourt who dedicated his masterpiece Erlkonig to him. Most recently Guy performed the world premiere of En pieces at Festival Musica in Strasbourg, a work dedicated to him, and of Bruno Mantovani?s Double Concerto in Porto and Toulouse. He will soon perform this work with BBC Symphony Orchestra as well. He will also give the Korean premiere of Le Desenchantement du monde of Tristan Murail, together with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Guy also recently made his conducting debut from the piano with Orchestre Phiharmonique de Liege, where the complete Beethoven concertos are scheduled for the next seasons. During the upcoming seasons he will play and conduct the Beethoven concertos together with other orchestras as well, a.o. the Orchestre National de Lorraine, the Orchestre de Lille and the Orchestre d?Avignon. Other highlights of the upcoming seasons are concerts with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich (Saint-Saens 5, with Philippe Jordan), the Warszaw Philharmonic Orchestra (Bartok 2, with Pablo Gonzalez), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo (Scriabin?s Prometheus, with Gianluigi Gelmetti) as well as with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (with Marc Albrecht). He will play recitals at Wigmore Hall, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, at the Beethovenfest Bonn, in Aix-en-Provence and in Mainz, and will perform complete Beethoven sonata cycles in Rio de Janeiro and in Italy (Pordenone Teatro Verdi). Francois-Frederic Guy is Artist in Residence at Metz Arsenal Hall.