Bourgie Hall presents

Pascal Amoyel – Looking for Beethoven

Pascal Amoyel presents his latest musical show honouring one of the most performed composers in the world. Between music and biographical storytelling, he passionately leads us on an exciting quest whose common thread are Beethoven’s 32 sonatas, a true diary of his life… Be drawn into the intimate sphere of this solitary genius, who despite numerous challenges used music as a means to forge his own destiny!

Voted “Solo Instrumental Discovery of the Year” at the Victoires de la Musique in 2005, Pascal Amoyel was awarded the 2010 Grand Prix du Disque by the prestigious Chopin Society in Warsaw for his recording of the complete Nocturnes by Chopin, together with Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire – a release described by Classica music magazine as a “miracle we had ceased to hope for and listen to speechless before such beauty”.

When he was 10, he started learning piano at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and was soon noticed by Georges Cziffra, with whom he later studied in France and Hungary. Having finished high school with a scientific baccalaureate at 17, he decided to devote himself entirely to music. After obtaining his Licence de concert from the École Normale de Musique de Paris, he was awarded first prize in piano and chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, became a laureate of the Menuhin and Cziffra Foundations, and won first prize at the International Competition for Young Pianists in Paris.

This marked the beginning of a great international career, which has led him to perform in the most prestigious concert venues – Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam Muziekgebouw, Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts, Cité de la Musique and Salle Pleyel in Paris –, as well as in the United States, Canada, Russia, China and Korea.

Pascal Amoyel is a piano and improvisation teacher at Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory, and heads the Notes d’Automne festival for which he has commissioned more than forty creations.

He has also written Une petite histoire de la grande musique (“A brief history of classical music”). He is a winner of the Premier Grand Prix Arts-Deux Magots, which rewards “a musician blessed with openness and generosity”, Licra’s Prix Jean-Pierre Bloch for “the connection with human rights in his work”, and has been made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier des Palmes académiques.

*Presented in French.
Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at 7:30pm
To purchase your tickets visit: www.mbam.qc.ca/en/bourgie-hall/