Jean-Paul Gasparian

At a young age Jean-Paul Gasparian already brings a wide ranging repertoire to the stage, including works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Babadjanian, Khachaturian, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Gershwin and more. Gasparian performs with orchestras such as the Bremer Philharmoniker, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Sinfonia Varsovia, Armenian State Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen, Orchestre de Normandie, Valencia Symphonic Orchestra and Orchestre National d’Auvergne Rhônes-Alpes under Nikolai Szeps-Znaider. In 2022 Gasparian debuted with the Orchestre National d'Île-de-France under Ilyich Rivas at the Philharmonie de Paris playing Liszt's Concerto No. 1. The young Frenchman is also interested in more unusual repertoire: he has performed Howard Shore's (known for The Lord of the Rings) Ruin and Memory with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as Scriabin's Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. Last season he returned to Nuremberg with Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No.1.

Gasparian appeared at major festivals including the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, La Roque d'Anthéron, Nohant Festival Chopin, Montpellier Festival, Piano aux Jacobins Toulouse, Festival Chopin de Bagatelle, Lisztomanias and Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo. In 2020, he played selected Beethoven sonatas for Radio France as part of the Festival Intégrales des Sonates de Beethoven. Gasparian also performed in venues such as the Salzburg Mozarteum, Tonhalle Zurich, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Glocke Bremen, Belgrade Kolarac, the Museum of Modern Art in Tel-Aviv, the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the Maison de la Radio, the Salle Cortot and the Salle Gaveau in Paris.

Classica magazine ranks him as one of the 10 most promising young pianists of his generation. He has attracted attention with his debut CD with Russian composers Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Prokofiev, which was released by Évidence Classics in 2018. With both his second solo album dedicated to Chopin and his third album with works by Rachmaninov, Gasparian once again proved that he is a musical talent to keep an eye on. He then dedicated his first album for the naïve label to Debussy and another, Origins, released in August 2024, reflects his own cultural heritage with works by Armenian composers Babadjanian, Katchaturian and Komitas. The album received the Diapason d’or. He starts the current season with the release of an album dedicated to opera transcriptions.

In 2019, he won the Prix Therry Scherz at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad. This prize enabled him to record Babadjanian's Heroic Ballad and Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto with the Bern Symphony Orchestra, highly acclaimed and released by claves in spring 2022.

Jean-Paul Gasparian is a prizewinner of the European Piano Competition Bremen 2014, the International Piano Competition in Lyon 2013 and the Hastings International Concerto Competition 2013. He was a semi-finalist at the Geza Anda Competition in 2015 and a finalist at Victoires de la Musique France in 2020. In 2013, he also received the 1st Philosophy Prize of the Concours Général des Lycéens de France (French National Competition).

Gasparian studied at the Conservatoire National de Paris under Olivier Gardon, Jacques Rouvier, Michel Beroff, Laurent Cabasso, Claire Désert and Michel Dalberto. He took part in international masterclasses with Pavel Gililov, Elisso Virsaladze and Tatiana Zelikman. In June 2018, he completed his Artist Diploma with Prof. Vanessa Latarche at the Royal College of Music in London. Gasparian was an artist-in-residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation from 2020 to 2026, an alumnus of the Lieven Piano Foundation and is supported by the Banque Populaire Foundation and the Villecroze Music Academy. He also is a Steinway Artist.