Biography
Within France’s piano community, Jean-Baptiste Fonlupt maintains a prominent presence while favoring obscure compositions for his programs and demonstrating a firm dedication to new music. Born in France in 1976, he began piano lessons at six at the Conservatoire de Grenoble. At thirteen he captured first place in the Royaume de Musique competition and performed as soloist with the Orchestre Colonne at the Maison de la Radio in Paris. The next year he earned top honors in the Steinway Youth Piano Competition, which led to a recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. In 1991 he entered the Conservatoire de Paris, where he worked with Bruno Rigutto and received additional instruction from Georges Pludermacher as well as from Eliso Virsaladze in Moscow; he also pursued studies in Berlin with Michael Endres.
He has performed in major halls such as the Konzerthaus in both Vienna and Berlin and the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, where he appeared at the International Piano Festival. In 2016 he joined the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. On stage and in recordings Fonlupt regularly highlights seldom-heard repertory, including Liszt’s Apparitions, and his interpretations of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s keyboard sonatas have earned particular praise. During the 2010s he issued albums devoted to Chopin and to Schumann, the latter containing the rarely programmed Geistervariationen, the composer’s final work. He appears often at French festivals and series such as “Liszt en Provence,” “Piano en Valois,” and “Esprit du Piano in Bordeaux,” and he is a frequent presence on French radio. Fonlupt maintains regular touring schedules in Japan and China. Committed to contemporary music, he traveled to Caracas to give the world premiere of Joseph-François Kremer’s Anamorphoses for piano and orchestra with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra. In 2022 he released the album Stravinsky, Ravel, Prokofiev: Ballets on the La Dolce Volta label.
He has performed in major halls such as the Konzerthaus in both Vienna and Berlin and the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, where he appeared at the International Piano Festival. In 2016 he joined the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. On stage and in recordings Fonlupt regularly highlights seldom-heard repertory, including Liszt’s Apparitions, and his interpretations of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s keyboard sonatas have earned particular praise. During the 2010s he issued albums devoted to Chopin and to Schumann, the latter containing the rarely programmed Geistervariationen, the composer’s final work. He appears often at French festivals and series such as “Liszt en Provence,” “Piano en Valois,” and “Esprit du Piano in Bordeaux,” and he is a frequent presence on French radio. Fonlupt maintains regular touring schedules in Japan and China. Committed to contemporary music, he traveled to Caracas to give the world premiere of Joseph-François Kremer’s Anamorphoses for piano and orchestra with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra. In 2022 he released the album Stravinsky, Ravel, Prokofiev: Ballets on the La Dolce Volta label.
Albums
