A regular guest at prestigious festivals in France (La Roque-d’Anthéron Festival, Piano aux Jacobins, Lille Piano Festival, Radio France Montpellier Festival, etc.), Claire Désert also appears on major international stages such as Wigmore Hall in London, the Kennedy Center in New York, and throughout Japan, Brazil and Germany. She performs as a soloist with leading symphony orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the orchestras of Strasbourg, Toulouse, Prague, Quebec and Japan. She has performed under the direction of Marek Janowski, Jiří Bělohlávek and Lawrence Foster. Admitted at the age of fourteen to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Claire Désert was awarded a First Prize unanimously by the jury in the piano class of V. Yankoff, as well as a First Prize in chamber music in J. Hubeau’s class. She then entered the advanced studies cycle in both disciplines, notably in chamber music with R. Pidoux. Noticed by pianist and pedagogue Evgeny Malinin, she was invited by him to continue her studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Claire Désert is an outstanding chamber musician. Her preferred partners include Emmanuel Strosser, Anne Gastinel, Gary Hoffman, Philippe Graffin, Régis Pasquier, the Sine Nomine Quartet and the Moraguès Quintet. Her substantial discography includes a recording of Schumann’s Novelettes (awarded a “10” by Répertoire magazine), a CD of Scriabin and Dvořák concertos with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra that won a Victoire de la Musique in 1997, and several recordings with Anne Gastinel. Two further Schumann albums released by Mirare and a recording of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances for piano four hands with Emmanuel Strosser have also been released.

© François Sechet