Op. 14 Featuring PAUL ANDRÉ BEMPÉCHAT
Franco-Canadian pianist and musicologist Paul-André Bempéchat was raised in Montréal and has made his career overseas and in the United States. He studied at the Manhattan and Juilliard Schools of Music where his mentors were Artur Balsam and Nadia Reisenberg in piano, Martin Isepp in Vocal Accompanying and Felix Galimir in Chamber Music. Studies in Musicology and Comparative Literature followed at Boston University and at the Sorbonne.
From his base at Harvard since 2002, Dr. Bempéchat sustains the career which has brought him to the many philharmonics, the Wiener Festwochen and Berlin’s Konzerthaus through recitals, concerto appearances and residencies across North America and Europe. He is currently a Fellow and Artist-in-Residence (Spring 2023) at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies where has also begun research into the reception history of Beethoven's piano sonatas.
In 2022 with support from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design Foundation where he has taught in the Liberal Arts Department since 2014, Dr. Bempéchat released the second edition of his seminal biography of the eclectic French impressionist Jean Cras, Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters with Peter Lang Publishing in Switzerland, along with the first edition of the composer's early songs (Ayotte). As all this was accomplished by one perceived as a foreigner - Bempéchat is French from birth and Canadian by naturalization - this inspired the wrath of the French musical community. Go Canada!
For his service to French music, Dr. Bempéchat was decorated Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture, and as Honourary Fellow of the Royal Academic Chapel and Orchestra at Uppsala University.
M. Bempéchat's first performed at Queen's in 1982 and this week's residency marks his first appearance in Canada since 1992.
PianoFest recitals are presented with generous support from the George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund