Claude Kahn

Pianist Claude Kahn, best known for his interpretations of the Romantic music of Chopin and Liszt, was born in Marseille, France on November 9, 1935. He began playing the piano at the age of four, studying under teachers such as Rose Lejour, Yves Nat, Nadia Boulanger, and Yves Nat, before taking lessons from Marguerite Long for ten years. At the age of 15, he won a prize for best interpretation (of La Campanella) at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest, Hungary in 1956. He also won a medal at the Geneva International Competition and the Grand Prize at the Casella Competition in Naples, Italy. Claude Kahn embarked on a solo career that saw him perform throughout Europe, in recital and with major orchestras, and performed internationally including Philadelphia under the direction of Eugène Ormandy. A distinguished interpreter of Chopin, to whom he devoted several discs, Claude Kahn recorded 26 albums, including Récital Chopin (1957), Liszt: Sonate en si mineur (1960), Tchaikovsky: Concerto pour piano No. 1 (1961), Chopin, Fauré, Liszt, Debussy, Rachmaninoff (1962), Debussy: Préludes, Livre II (1978), Chopin: 24 Préludes, op. 28 (1979), Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit (1980), Les Bis (1984), Beethoven: Sonatas nos. 8, 14 & 32 (2005) and Liszt - Schubert: Sonatas (2005). In 1970, he founded the Claude Kahn Piano Competition, whose finals were held in Paris, France and revealed such virtuosos as François-Frédéric Guy, Jean-François Neuberger, and Alexandre Tharaud. In 1979, he founded the Antibes Conservatory of Music, which he directed until 1991, when he became director of the Cagnes-sur-Mer Conservatory (Alpes-Maritimes). Knighted in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Ordre National du Mérite, Claude Kahn retired to Vallauris-Golfe-Juan, where he died on November 17, 2023, at the age of 88.