Hélène Grimaud
Hélène Grimaud is a French-born virtuoso pianist known for her fearlessly individual interpretations of standard and lesser-known piano repertoire. Also a devoted wildlife conservationist, in 1999 she founded the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York.
Grimaud was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1969, and both of her parents worked as teachers. She began exploring the piano when she was seven years old, and she studied with Jacqueline Courtin. Later, she studied with Pierre Barbizet in Marseille, and when she was 13, she was accepted into the Paris Conservatory, where she studied with Jacques Rouvier. After three years at the conservatory, Grimaud won the premier prix in piano performance. She sought further refinement at the conservatory and enrolled in the cycle de perfectionnement under Rouvier; she also received instruction from György Sándor and Leon Fleisher. The following year, she released her debut recording of Rachmaninov's Sonata No. 2 and Etudes-tableaux op. 33, which won the Grand Prix du Disque in 1986.
Grimaud began performing outside of the conservatory shortly thereafter and gave her debut recital in Tokyo in 1987. She was invited by Daniel Barenboim to perform with the Orchestre de Paris later that year, and she continued to receive invitations to perform with major orchestras throughout the world. In the 1990s, she released several recordings, including Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2; Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major and the live album Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 15. She made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Claudio Abaddo in 1995, and in 1999 she performed with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic for the first time. She also created the Wolf Conservation Center that year.
In 2002 Grimaud became an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, and she was honored with membership to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. It was also around this time that she began an additional career as an author, and in 2003 she published her autobiography, Variations Sauvages, followed by Leçons particulières in 2005, and Retour à Salem in 2013. Also in 2013, she received an Echo Klassik Award for her collaboration with cellist Sol Gabetta on the album Duo. In 2018 Grimaud released the album Memory, which featured the music of Chopin, Debussy, and others. During the 2019-2020 season, she performed at Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Yannick Nezet-Seguin; she appeared in Luxembourg and Munich with MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis; and she toured Germany with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrusa. Additionally, she performed material from her album Memory throughout the U.S., while also devoting her time to the Wolf Conservation Center. With a focus on the music of Valentin Silvestrov, she issued the solo album Hélène Grimaud plays Valentin Silvestrov in 2022, and the 2023 release Silvestrov: Silent Songs featured a collaboration with baritone Konstantin Krimmel.
© RJ Lambert /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Corigliano / Beethoven / Pärt "Credo"
Hélène Grimaud, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven, Brahms, Gershwin, Ravel, Schumann...
Keyboard Concertos - Released by Warner Classics International on 3 Jul 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Perspectives
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 7 Apr 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Echoes of Time
Lisa Batiashvili, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Hélène Grimaud
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2011
Gramophone: Recording of the Month16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Piano Concerto, Op. 54 - Strauss: Burleske
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Dec 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin / Rachmaninov: Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 15 Feb 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2, Études-tableaux & Variations on a Theme of Corelli
Hélène Grimaud, Philharmonia Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: 6 Piano Pieces, Op. 118: No. 2 in A Major. Intermezzo
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 24 Nov 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov : Piano Concerto No.2 - Ravel : Concerto in G
Keyboard Concertos - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hélène Grimaud plays Valentin Silvestrov
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 30 Sep 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19: III. Andante (Musical Moments)
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 27 May 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Hélène Grimaud plays Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich
Hélène Grimaud, Serge Rachmaninoff, Dimitri Chostakovitch
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 7 Jan 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
For Clara: Works by Schumann & Brahms
Hélène Grimaud, Konstantin Krimmel
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 8 Sep 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Memory
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 21 Sep 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Fantasiestücke op. 73, Dichterliebe op. 48, Andante und Variationen op. 46
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 16 Aug 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin / Rachmaninov: Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Kreisleriana - Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 2
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reflection
Hélène Grimaud, Staatskapelle Dresden, Esa-Pekka Salonen
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Sonata No. 2, Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33 & Others
Hélène Grimaud, Serge Rachmaninoff
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Romantic Piano
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 27 Aug 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hélène Grimaud - Passionate
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 15 Nov 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo