Émile Naoumoff
Chairman of the jury, 2025
One critic has fittingly pointed out that Émile Naoumoff's playing is as similar to Vladimir Horowitz's in its fiery character as it is to Arthur Rubinstein's in its poetry. Having shown himself to be a genius at the piano from the age of five and having begun to study composition the following year, Émile Naoumoff was already under contract as a composer at the age of eighteen with the Mainz-based score publisher Schott Music. His studies with Nadia Boulanger between the age of seven and the composer's death at the end of 1979 had a profound effect on him, and she herself spoke of him as a ‘gift in [her] old age’. During this period, he had the opportunity to work with such great musicians as Leonard Bernstein, Gaby and Robert Casadesus, Clifford Curzon, Jean Françaix, Aram Khachaturian, Nikita Magaloff, Igor Markevitch, Yehudi Menhuin and Soulima Stravinsky. It was Menhuin who conducted the orchestra giving its first public performance of the piano concerto composed by Émile Naoumoff at the age of ten, with the young pianist playing solo. As well as taking lessons from Mademoiselle Boulanger, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Lélia Gousseau, Pierre Sancan and Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux, and learned conducting at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris with Pierre Dervaux. Just when Mademoiselle Boulanger, Gabriel Fauré's last disciple, felt the need to pass the torch to Emile Naoumoff, he felt the need to share with the next generation what he had learnt from her. He first taught at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, then in 1996 opened his own summer academy at the Château de Rangiport in Gargenville, France. A few years later, he became a professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris and finally accepted a position as associate professor of piano at Indiana University in Bloomington/Jacobs School of Music (USA), where he currently lives.
Émile Naoumoff performs regularly with the world's leading ensembles (Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, den Wiener Symphoniker, San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony Washington, Moscow Symphony, NHK Symphony, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio-France, Camerata Bern), playing under conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Eliahu Inbal, Igor Markevitch, Mstislav Rostropovich and Leonard Slatkin. He has also performed with the Fine Arts Quartet and musicians such as Philippe Bernold, Gérard Caussé, Olivier Charlier, Jean Ferrandis, Patrice Fontanarosa, Philippe Graffin, Gary Hoffman, Yo-Yo Ma, Régis Pasquier, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Gérard Souzay and Dominique de Williencourt. His performances of the Grieg concerto at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition at the Kennedy Center in Washington with the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, are among the highlights of his career.
In the past few years years, he has taken part in numerous festivals (Menuhin seminar organised by the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, Santander Summer Masterclasses, Verbier Festival Academy, Banff Center, Residencies at the Barcelona Conservatoire/ESMUC). In addition to his own works and transcriptions, notably of Pictures at an Exhibition conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, Emile Naoumoff performs both the traditional repertoire and lesser-known works such as the piano works of Gabriel Dupont. He has released over thirty CDs on the EMI, Sony, Phillips, Wergo, Naxos and Saphir labels..... In 2003 he recorded the complete keyboard sonatas of Johann Christian Bach. Émile Naoumoff has a passion for French melodies and is renowned for his remarkable piano transcriptions. He records his daily improvisations on his YouTube channel.