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Pianist, composer and conductor, Francois Weigel studied piano and composition at the Cologne Musikhochschule, conducting at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Musique de Paris, and analysis, piano and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he won several first prizes. He had advanced piano studies with Günther Ludwig, Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen and Alexis Weissenberg.
He often performs throughout Europe, including in Vienna, Sazburg, Graz, Klagenfurt, in the Berlin Philharmonie, in Hamburg, Bonn, Essen, Brussels, Geneva, Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Warsaw, Katowice, Riga, Tallinn, Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, Naples, Verone, Stresa, Ravello, in Paris, Salle Gaveau, Theâtre du Châtelet, Salle Pleyel, in the festivals of Evian, Radio-France-Montpellier, Flâneries de Reims, La Roque d’Anthéron, but also in the operas of Lille, Versailles, Avignon, Tours, Marseille, Nancy, Buenos Aires, Dallas.
As solo concert pianist, he has played with many leading orchestras like the Hamburg Philharmonic (Ingo Metzmacher), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Pinchas Steinberg), Philharmonique de Radio-France (Marek Janowski), Orchestre National de Lille (Paul Polivnick), Orchestre National d'Ile de France, Orchestre National de Lorraine (Jacques Mercier), Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier (Enrique Diemecke), Nouvel Orchestre de Saint-Etienne (Patrick Fournillier), Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse (Daniel Klajner), the Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra (Emil Tabakov), the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra (Alexei Kornienko), the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Nicolai Alexeev), the Polnish Radio National Symphonic Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra - Filharmonia Narodowa (Antoni Wit).
He has also conducted the Chamber Orchestra from Bratislava, the Latvia Chamber Orchestra, the Ankara Bilkent Symphonic Orchestra, and the Zagreb Chamber Orchestra with his own orchestra transcriptions.
His chamber music partners are the Belvedere Trio (members of the Wienner Philharmonic) and the Amarcord Quartet (soloists from the Berliner Philharmonic). He also gived numerous recitals with singers such as Inva Mula, Sophie Koch, Qùu-Lin Zhang, Katarina Jovanovic, Magali Léger, Laurence Dale, Ferrucio Furlanetto, with the violonists James Ehnes, Shunske Sato, Sasha Rojdestvensky, the altists Toby Hoffman, Vladimir Mendelssohn, the pianist Frederic Chiù.
A true original he can play the baroque style that he particularly loves, share the stage with DJ Doctor Bone (the darling of New York dance floor music) as well improvise live on radio France Musique to notes given by the public.
The Paris Bastille Opera has regularly invited him to conduct choirs, notably in contemporary productions of Adriana Mater by Kaija Saariaho, Saint François d'Assise by Messiaen, and also the german repertoire (Wozzek, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau ohne Schatten). He gives yearly public conferences during the Dietrich-Fischer Dieskau masterclasses in Austria.
François Weigel appears regularly on radio and television across Europe (TF1 with Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, France 2 with Eve Ruggieri, LCI, France Inter with Frederic Lodeon and Stephane Bern, die Deutsche Welle, and has performed piano recitals on the Radio Suisse Romande, die Deutsche Rundfunk, the Norvegian National Radio, Radio Classique and France Musique.
His Messiaen’s Turangalila CD for Naxos with the Polish Radio National Orchestra has been universally acclaimed in the international press as the standard recording. It was highly praised by the Monde de la Musique (Choc) and Repertoire (10/10), and elected "best month’s CD" by Rondo, "Editor’s Choice "by Gramophone. It won the international "Classical Music Award" from the Midem.
François Weigel has received several distinctions among which the prizes of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, the Philip Morris Foundation, the Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, and the french academic palms for his artistic action in the high schools.
© Valmalete/TransArt francoisweigel.com
"A splendid soloist, as tecnically secure and musically as any.
An incredible delight."
"A complete artist, at once pianist, composer and conductor. Irresistible !"
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