Jean-Marc Luisada

Pianist Jean-Marc Luisada first earned recognition for his deep engagement with Chopin while also committing substantial studio time to repertoire stretching from Beethoven through Poulenc and other twentieth-century figures. He maintains an active role in chamber-music partnerships and has established himself as a dedicated teacher.

Born on June 3, 1958, in Bizerte, Tunisia, Luisada began piano lessons at six; at that time Tunisia had already achieved independence, yet the French still administered the region surrounding Bizerte. His family later relocated to mainland France. He continued his training at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England before entering the Conservatoire de Paris at sixteen. There his principal instructors were Dominique Merlet and Marcel Ciampi for piano, while Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux, wife of composer Henri Dutilleux, guided his chamber-music studies. Additional lessons came from Nikita Magaloff and Paul Badura-Skoda.

A decisive early milestone arrived when he placed fifth at the Eleventh International Chopin Piano Competition held in Warsaw in 1985. By his thirtieth birthday he had already performed across Europe, the United States, and Asia. Securing a major-label contract took longer, yet the 1998 release of the rarely heard chamber arrangement of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, with the Talich Quartet opened international doors. For many subsequent years he recorded for RCA.

Luisada has played regularly at leading halls, among them Wigmore Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, and the Théâtre des Champs Élysées in Paris. Festival appearances have included the Paris Chopin Festival, the Festival de La Roque d’Anthéron, and La Folle Journée de Nantes. Although Chopin dominates much of his discography, he has also devoted entire albums to composers ranging from Beethoven to Poulenc, appearing on Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, and Decca. In 2021 he joined La Dolce Volta for a pairing of Schubert piano sonatas; two years later the same label issued Au cinéma ce soir, featuring works that had accompanied classic films from the 1950s through the 1970s.

He currently teaches at the École Normale Alfred Cortot in Paris. In 2022 he appeared in Singapore alongside two of his students, Congyu Wang and Hayato Sumino.