Pascal Amoyel

Pascal Amoyel is best known for his performances of solo piano music by Liszt, Chopin, and Scriabin, and for his duo performances in a variety of repertory with cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand. Amoyel is also known for his pioneering work with actors in the development of theatrical concerts, as evidenced by the 2005 work he co-wrote, Le Block 15, performed with Bertrand and directed by French actor and writer Jean Piat. In the solo realm Amoyel has also performed contemporary music by Olivier Greif, Pierre Schaeffer, Bechara El Khoury, and Aubert Lemeland. Amoyel has concertized throughout Europe, the U.K., North America, and Japan. As a composer, Amoyel has written mostly smaller-scale compositions, and a fair number involving the cello, which are often performed by Bertrand. Amoyel has made numerous recordings over the years for such labels as Harmonia Mundi and Calliope.
Pascal Amoyel was born in Rozay-en-Brie, France, on January 2, 1971. From age ten, he studied music at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris and was soon noticed by piano virtuoso Gyorgy Cziffra. Amoyel would study with him for eight years, including as a student at the Paris Conservatory, where he enrolled at age 17. Amoyel's teachers at the Conservatory included Jacques Rouvier and Pascal Devoyon.
In 1992 Amoyel captured first prize at the Conservatory for piano performance and two years later won first prize there for chamber music performance as well. 1994 was also the year he was awarded first prize at the International Competition of Young Pianists in Paris. Amoyel steadily built his career throughout the 1990s and shortly after meeting cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand the two formed a duo in 1999 and have since regularly concertized and recorded together.
By the early years of the new century Amoyel was a major figure on the international scene and among his most successful early recordings was his 2005 complete traversal of the Chopin nocturnes on a two-disc Calliope set. That same year saw the release of the Amoyel/Bertrand debut album on Harmonia Mundi, a collection of sonatas and other works by Richard Strauss and Reger. In 2007 Amoyel was made Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture in France. In 2010 he was given the Corporate Foundation Banque Populaire award for his work as a composer. Among Amoyel's more acclaimed recordings is the 2011 Harmonia Mundi double-CD set, Le Violoncelle Romantique, a collection of works by Liszt, Grieg, Saint-Saëns, Alkan, and Richard Strauss, with Bertrand on cello.