Pianist
A student of Eliane Richepin, Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, and Teresa Llacuna, Pascal Gallet is one of the most internationally
renowned French pianists. Since his first television appearance at the age of 10, he has established himself as one of the most gifted
concert pianists of his generation, performing with major orchestras on every continent. Entering the Paris Conservatory (CNSM)
at a very young age, he won several prizes and completed the advanced piano studies program. His early years were crowned by
numerous prizes at the international competitions in Viotti, Porto, Trapani, Senigalia, the Menuhin Foundation, and the French
Ministry of Culture. A world-renowned pedagogue, he teaches piano at the National Higher Institute of Artistic Education in
Marseille and gives masterclasses at prestigious conservatories (Brasilia, Shanghai, Kitzingen Hochschule), universities (Seoul,
Singapore, etc.) and academies (Belgrade, Niš, Nancy, Aix-en-Provence, etc.). Awarded the Béatrice de Savoie Prize in 2014, he
was also honored as a distinguished visitor to Guatemala City and as a companion of honor of the Sarto. A guest of honor at
numerous festivals (CIVEBRA 2016, Shanghai Spring Festival, New Music Festival of Guangxi in China, Pianodrom in Albania),
he is also the initiator of the Teresa Llacuna International Competition in Valence, the founder of the National Piano
Competition in Madagascar, and for several years directed the Musique à Fontmorigny (Cher) and Nuits au Château du Cingle
(Isère) festivals. In 2019, he created the traveling piano festival Musics TransBauges, with the support of the Bauges Regional
Natural Park, to make classical music accessible to all. Becoming Musics TransRhône in 2022, and then Les Musicales Itinérantes
du Rhône in 2026, this musical journey has strengthened its educational mission by bringing live performance into schools in rural
communities. A specialist in world premieres, Pascal Gallet maintains close ties with leading composers of his time, from Olivier
Messiaen – with whom he worked at the age of 17 and who dedicated two works from his Oiseaux catalogue to him – to Vladimir
Cosma, not forgetting contemporary composers Thierry Pécou, Qiu Yulan, and Aleksandër Peçi, who dedicated one of their
works to him. Pascal Gallet’s extensive discography includes several chamber music albums, such as Musiques d’Europe, trios by
d’Indy and Fauré, and Shostakovich’s quintet, on which he performs with the renowned Enescu Quartet. His early solo
recordings garnered exceptional critical acclaim. His album dedicated to Chopin, released to mark the bicentenary of the composer’s
birth, received particularly high praise. Diapason magazine deemed his interpretation of the Sonata No. 2, Op. 35, “worthy of the
greatest, such as Alfred Cortot, Nelson Freire, and Martha Argerich.” Debussy’s Preludes, great film scores, contemporary
Chinese music, and the mysticism of Liszt have also been the subject of dedicated recordings. As for his interpretation of Joaquín
Turina, compared to that of Alicia de Larocha, it signaled very early on the maestro’s desire to restore the prestige of composers
unjustly neglected by the general public. His recording dedicated to Henri Collet follows the same approach. Pascal Gallet is also
the world’s leading specialist in the piano and orchestral music of André Jolivet, including his Concerto recorded live with the
Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra and performed in Mexico City’s Nezahualcoyotl Hall with the UNAM Philharmonic
Orchestra. He remains the only pianist in the world to have recorded the complete piano music of Jolivet. In 2022, he published
42 educational videos analyzing this ambitious repertoire on his YouTube channel, and then, at the end of 2024, released the
Complete Jolivet Collection in a boxed set including Etude No. 5, his last unpublished work, and all the music for two pianos,
recorded in Shanghai with the Chinese pianist Chen Jiang. Pascal Gallet continues his series of complete recordings, reviving the
works of Ernest Luguet, a composer who had fallen into oblivion, rehabilitated with a first recording in 2024. A box set of the
complete Luguet works, which Pascal Gallet has dedicated to the Savoyard composer, will be released in January 2027. His concert
activity in China and around the world is intensifying, and Pascal hasn’t forgotten his passion for radio, hosting the program “Tout
est Classique” on Blue Radio to stay even closer to his French audience.