Born in Beirut in 1958 to a family of musicians and nephew of a famous painter, Abdel Rahman El Bacha started his piano studies in 1967 with Zvart Sarkissian, a pupil of Marguerite Long and Jacques Février. He joined the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris at 16 years of age, in Pierre Sancan’s class, in order to per fect his technique. He graduated with four First Prizes: piano, chamber music, harmony and counterpoint.
In 1978, Mr. El Bacha unanimously won the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, as well as the Audience Prize. Following these honours, he took a break that he dedicated to refining his repertoire. He was then invited to play in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe and in the world. He played with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Orchestre de Paris, the Tokyo NHK and the English Chamber Orchestra, to name only a few. His first recording, dedi cated to Prokofiev’s early works, won the Grand Prize of the Académie Charles Cros. Since then, he has recorded numerous works: Bach, Ravel, Schubert, Schumann and Rachmaninov for the Forlane label, and Prokofiev’s five piano concertos (Live recording) for Fuga Libera. His inter pretations of Beethoven’s complete sonatas and Chopin’s complete work for piano solo (recorded in chronological order) are great artistic successes, both in recordings and in concerts. The Mirare label has just released his most re cent CD dedicated to Prokofiev’s piano pieces.
As well as being the Master of piano in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, in Belgium, Abdel Rahman El Bacha is also a composer. In 1998, the French Minister of Culture awarded him the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and in 2002, he was awarded from his native country and by the Lebanese president the gold medal of the Order of Merit, the country’s highest decoration.
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