Swing, Sing & Think: David Fray – Bach’s Keyboard Concertos
David Fray
David Fray was born in 1981, in Tarbes, a French town near the Pyrenees, starting to play the piano with only 4 years.
He graduated from the National Superior Conservatory of Music of Paris, with the highest honors, studying with Professor Jacques Rouvier.
He has received numerous awards and prizes including a prize and a scholarship by the Banque Populaire of France, the Diploma of Outstanding Merit at the V Hamamatsu International Competition in Japan, the Jeune Soloist of the Year Award, most of the major awards bestowed by the Commission from the French Language Public Broadcasters, the Feydeau de Brou San Pablo Grant and the Revelation Classique (Classic Discovery) award ADAMI.
At the 2004 Montreal International Music Competition, he received the second Grand Prix and the Best Performance of an imposed Canadian work. As a direct reward for its success in this contest, ATMA Classique launched its first CD (Liszt and Schubert), and is beginning to be known around the world.
David Fray has given numerous recitals in Europe, America and Asia, in the most prestigious concert halls: Cité de la Musique, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Châtelet, Louvre Auditorium in Paris, Place des Arts in Montreal, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Alti Hall in Kyoto, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, as well as in festivals such as La Roque d'Anthéron or Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse.
David Fray has been supported by artists such as Dimitri Bashkirov, Menahem Pressler, Paul Badura Skoda, Christoph Eschenbach, and Pierre Boulez. Under his recommendation, Fray David received the Klavier Festival Ruhr young talent award in Germany, where he played in the summer of 2006.
Christoph Eschenbach invited him to the 10th Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw to play Bach concerts with him, Robert Levine and Ya-Fei Chuang.
He has performed with the Grand Métropolitain Montreal Orchestra under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Orchester de Paris under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach and John Axelrod, the National Orchestra of France and Kurt Masur in Paris and Germany (Berlin, Stuttgart, Cologne), the Capitole National Orchestra of Toulouse, the Chamber Philharmonic of the Deutsche Bremen in Amsterdam and Paris (replacing Hélène Grimaud), as well as the tour with Riccardo Muti in Italy and the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, again with Riccardo Muti.
Most recently, he played with the National Orchestra of France in the Musikverein of Vienna and in the United States under the direction of Kurt Masur (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC), with the Jerusalem Symphony, Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Netherlands , The Chamber Orchestra, recitals in Barcelona, Paris, Turin, Zurich, Rome and at Wigmore Hall in London. His most recent engagements include concerts with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester and recitals in Vancouver, Montreal, London, Salzburg, Geneva, Paris , Munich, Madrid ...
An extract from his recital (Schubert "Wanderer" Fantasy) at La Roque d'Anthéron festival was recorded on DVD (Audience Ideale). His first recording as an exclusive Virgin Classics artist dedicated to Bach and Boulez, and earned him great critical success (Revelation of the Year 2008 by BBC Music, Best Recording / Echo Preis 2008), as well as his recording of Bach concerts With the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (with a DVD of Bruno Monsaingeon).
By its form of touch and by its movements and corporal expressions with the piano, many have compared it with Glenn Gould.
In 2008 he would marry Chiara Muti, daughter of the Italian conductor Riccardo Muti.
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