Cyprien Katsaris (born 5 May 1951) is a French-Cypriot virtuoso pianist, teacher and composer. Amongst his teachers were Monique de la Bruchollerie, a student of Emil von Sauer, who had been a pupil of Franz Liszt. He is known for his refined sound, extreme command of voicing, and virtually effortless physical mastery of technique.

Biography

Katsaris was born in Marseilles, France. Katsaris first began to play the piano when he was four, in Cameroon where he grew up. His first teacher was Marie-Gabrielle Louwerse. He studied piano at the Paris Conservatoire with Aline van Barentzen (a pupil of Élie-Miriam Delaborde, son of Charles-Valentin Alkan), and Monique de la Bruchollerie (a pupil of Emil von Sauer, who was a pupil of Franz Liszt). Briefly, Katsaris studied under György Cziffra. In 1969, Katsaris won the piano First Prize at the Conservatoire. As well as piano, Katsaris studied chamber music with René Leroy and Jean Hubeau, and he won First Prize for this in 1970. Katsaris gave his first public concert in Paris, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 8 May 1966. He performed the Hungarian Fantasy by Liszt, with the Orchestre Symphonique d'Ile-de-France conducted by René-Pierre Chouteau. Since then he has gone on to perform with many orchestras and conductors fréquentes. Katsaris was the second musician to record the complete Liszt transcriptions of Beethoven's nine symphonies, after İdil Biret – reissued by Warner Classics in 2006. He has also recorded the music of Mozart, Chopin, Grieg, and other composers, including the rare piano version of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with Brigitte Fassbaender and Thomas Moser. In 2001 Katsaris created his own recording label, Piano 21. In 2011, he performed a concert with French baritone David Serero in Paris.

Awards

Discography

Comprehensive discography of recordings under the label Piano 21: