Jean-Bernard Pommier, piano

Jean-Bernard Pommier was born in Beziers in the south of France. He began playing the piano at the age of four with Russian pianist Mina Koslova and gave his first public concert at the age of seven. He went on to study piano with Yves Nat and Pierre Sancan and conducting with Eugene Bigot at the Paris Conservatoire. In New York, he worked under the guidance of Eugene Istomin. In 1960, he received first prize in the Young Musicians International Competition in Berlin and the following year he was awarded the "Prix de la Guilde des Artistes Solistes Francais".

In 1962, aged seventeen, he was the finalist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, where he was awarded First Honourable Mention by the jury presided over by Emil Gilels. Since that triumph, he has appeared with such eminent conductors as Herbert von Karajan, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, Kurt Sanderling, Leonard Slatkin, Edo de Waart, Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim, under whose direction he performed the complete series of Beethoven concertos with the Orchestre de Paris. He is also regularly invited to the world' s most prestigious festivals; and his recital and concerto appearances have included all major centres such as London, Vienna, Berlin Leipzig, Dresden, Amsterdam, Paris, Moscow, Chicago and Israel.

Jean-Bernard Pommier is enjoying an active career as a conductor working with major orchestras in Europe and America. His conducting engagements include the San Francisco Symphony, l'Orchestre de Paris, l'Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio France, the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, RAI Turin, Tonhalle Zurich, Warsaw Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Symphony, Leipzig Radio, Belgium National Orchestra and the Salzburg Mozarteum.

Pommier also frequently takes up the dual role of pianist and conductor with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Northern Sinfonia of England, the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, the English chamber orchestra or the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

His chamber music partners have included Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Leonard Rose, Alexander Schneider, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Paul Tortellier, Maurice Bourgue and the Guarneri and Vermeer Quartets. He has given master-classes in Chicago, London, Lausanne, Durham and Melbourne. Previously the Artistic Director of the Northern Sinfonia, Principal conductor of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, Director of the Musikè Academy and the Menton Festival, the artist now tours widely.

His native France has made Jean-Bernard Pommier an officer of the Ordre du Mérite National and a chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur.

Jean-Bernard Pommier has recorded the complete Mozart sonatas (Virgin), the complete Beethoven sonatas (Erato; Diapason d'Or), Chopin Waltzes (Erato), Préludes and Images by Debussy (Virgin), Mozart's concerti K503, K537, K467 and K488 (Erato, Virgin), as well as Rachmaninov's concerto no 2 and Tchaikovsky concert no 1 (Virgin).

Over the last few seasons, he performed the complete Beethoven sonatas in London and Brussels. In 2015, he will play the entire series in Paris, Salle Gaveau.