“His Chopin
brought into
memory the play of
Lipatti and Cortot”
Jean-Paul Gasparian released his sixth album in September 2024, his second for naïve records. Entirely devoted to Armenian music, Origins was awarded a Diapason d’Or and received widespread critical acclaim from the international press (“A Musician of Enormous Imagination” – Gramophone). In 2023, his Debussy album was selected by Crescendo magazine as one of the twelve finest classical recordings of the year. His previous albums, devoted to Rachmaninoff and Chopin, had already won enthusiastic praise (“A New Masterstroke” – Le Figaro ; “A Highly Accomplished Chopinist” – BBC Music Magazine). Jean-Paul's newest album, A Night at the Opera, devoted to Liszt and Thalberg’s virtuoso transcriptions of great arias by Verdi, Bellini and Wagner, was published by naïve in September.
In February 2020, Jean-Paul was awarded the Thierry Scherz Prize at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, which led to a recording with the Bern Symphony Orchestra for Claves, featuring Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Arno Babadjanian’s Heroic Ballad. He was nominated for the 2021 Victoires de la Musique Classique in the Instrumental Soloist Revelation category.
Jean-Paul recently made his debut at New York’s legendary Carnegie Hall, performing works by Chopin and Liszt, and earned the First Grand Award at the 10th Manhattan International Music Competition.
In May 2022, he made his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris as a soloist with the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France. In May 2023, he gave the French premiere of Howard Shore’s piano concerto Ruin and Memory at the Maison de la Radio, performing with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
Orchestras with which he has appeared as a soloist also include the Nürnberger Symphoniker, Bremer Philharmoniker, Orchestre National de Lyon, Sinfonia Varsovia, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Belgrade Philharmonic and Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Jean-Paul has performed at major venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Tonhalle Zürich, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Mozarteum Salzburg, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama, as well as at festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, Un Violon sur le Sable, Piano aux Jacobins, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and Klavier-Festival Ruhr.
Born in Paris in 1995 to musician parents, Jean-Paul Gasparian studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Olivier Gardon, Jacques Rouvier, Michel Béroff, Laurent Cabasso, Michel Dalberto and Claire Désert, before earning an Artist Diploma at London's Royal College of Music, in the class of Prof. Vanessa Latarche. He has also worked with Elisso Virsaladze and Tatiana Zelikman.
Jean-Paul is the winner of the prestigious Bremen European Competition (Germany) in 2014, and a laureate of the José Iturbi International Piano Competition (2015), the Lyon International Piano Competition and the Hastings International Piano Competition (2013). He won the Cziffra Foundation prize in 2014.
A laureate of the Fondation Banque Populaire, he has also been a Steinway Artist since summer 2017.
Jean-Paul won First Prize in philosophy at the Concours général des lycées in 2013.