Philippe Cassard
International Visiting Professor of Piano
Philippe Cassard has established an international reputation as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician since giving a joint recital with Christa Ludwig in Paris in 1985. The same year he was a finalist at the Clara Haskil Competition, and in 1988 won the First Prize at the Dublin International Piano Competition.
His concerto appearances include performances with the London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Wales, Orchestre National de France. He has worked with many conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, Jeffrey Tate, Vladimir Fedossejev, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Raymond Leppard, Charles Dutoit, Armin Jordan, Marek Janowski, Emmanuel Krivine, Thierry Fischer.
Philippe’s performance of the complete piano works of Debussy (four recitals in a single day) received extremely enthusiastic press and media coverage. He has presented the cycle in London, Dublin, Paris, Lisbon, Sydney, Singapore and Tokyo. His Debussy’s recordings published by Decca have been awarded Grand Prix du Disque Français in 1994. He also visits China, Australia, South America and Canada regulary.
Philippe plays a huge repertoire of chamber music, and has appearead with such artists as Natalie Dessay, Angelika Kirchschlager, Wolfgang Holzmair, Paul Meyer, David Grimal, Anne Gastinel, Matt Haimovitz, Isabelle Faust, the Ebene, Modigliani, Takacs, Auryn, Vanbrugh, Danish and Chilingirian string quartets.
His recording of Schumann’s Humoresque and Fantasiestücke Op 12 was awarded Gramophone Editor’s Choice and FM Magazine Best Buy (2005).
In 2012, Philippe joined soprano Natalie Dessay for a Debussy Songs programme (Virgin’s classic), and pianist François Chaplin for a two pianos and four hands recital of Debussy’s works (Decca). In 2014, he released a Schubert programme (Sonata D959 and four hands piano music with Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia) for La Dolce Volta.
Philippe was Artistic Director of the Nuits Romantiques du Lac du Bourget Festival netween 1999 and 2008, and since 2005 has presented over 350 live weekly programmes on France Musique Radio dedicated to piano interpretation (awarded Prix SCAM in 2007 as Best radio programme). He has written an essay on Schubert and a book on cinema and music links.
