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Biography |
by Joseph Stevenson
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Having established himself as a first-rate interpreter of French solo piano music, Pascal Devoyon has also become one of Europe's most esteemed chamber music players.
As a youngster, he studied with Blanche Bascourret de Gueraldi. He graduated from the Paris Conservatoire in 1971 with a first prize, studying with Leilia Gousseau. The next year he received his performer's certificate (licence de concert) from the École Normale de Musique.
He made a good impression on audiences in competitions, although placing second in the Busoni Competition of 1974 and third in the Leeds Competition in 1975, and winning silver at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978. The prizes launched his concert career.
He has played regularly in North America and Europe. He has appeared with the Montreal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and many other leading orchestras. Solo recitals have taken him to such major venues as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, England's Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Philharmonie in Berlin, and New York's Carnegie Hall. Conductors he has worked with are Charles Dutoit, Simon Bychkov, Emmanuel Krivine, and Kurt Sanderling.
Among his best-received recordings is one he made early in his career of Maurice Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, and he is also the performer of well-received discs of solo music by Schumann and Liszt, the concertos of Grieg, Schumann, and Saint-Saëns, and the Tchaikovsky First Concerto.
During the 1990s he devoted more of his time to chamber music and accompaniment. Among his most frequent partners are cellist Stephen Isserlis and violinist Dong-Suk Kang. With these two, he has recorded primarily French string and piano music by composers Fauré, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Poulenc, and Schubert.
During the 1990s he also began a notable teaching career, becoming a professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire in 1991 and a teacher at the Berlin Hochshule für Musik in 1995. |
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