Eloïse Bella Kohn

Eloïse Bella Kohn has become an important figure on the French piano scene, making acclaimed recordings while still in her twenties. With violinist Christoph Koncz, she is the co-founder of the Europäische Musiktage Heidelberg festival. Kohn was born in Paris in 1991. She began taking piano lessons at a local Yamaha music school when she was four and then entered the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance (CNSM), studying with Michel Béroff, Eric Le Sage, David Fray, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. An early breakthrough for Kohn was her participation in a 2009 Satie project at Paris' Cité de la Musique, helmed by pianist Alexandre Tharaud. She went on to the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in Germany and the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, studying at the latter with Lilya Zilberstein. Kohn rounded out her education with master classes from such prestigious figures as Aldo Ciccolini, Thomas Adès, and András Schiff. Various honors, including a Young Talent nod from France's Diapason magazine in 2016, put her on the concert map. In 2018, she released her debut album, a recording of Debussy's 24 Preludes, on the Hänssler Classic label; the album garnered several major awards, unusual for a debut release. Kohn has frequently appeared at major concert halls around France and beyond, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She is a frequent guest at French festivals, including the Lille Piano Festival and the Festival International d'Art lyrique in Aix-en-Provence, and she has been heard on the radio in several countries. An enthusiastic chamber music player, she numbers among her collaborators such distinguished musicians as violinists Arabella Steinbacher and Renaud Capuçon, violist Nobuko Imai, and soprano Christiane Karg. Kohn returned to the recording arena in 2021 with an album devoted to the completion of Bach's The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080, by Thierry Escaich, with whom she had earlier studied music theory. In 2022, Kohn was heard on the Accentus choir's album À la lumière, devoted to choral songs by Saint-Saëns and Reynaldo Hahn.
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