Jacques Rouvier

French pianist Jacques Rouvier is one of France's most famous musical educators, with a long list of successful students to his credit. He is also widely known as a recitalist and chamber music player. Rouvier was born in Marseilles in January 18, 1948. He attended the Paris Conservatory, studying with Jean Hubeau and winning top student prizes in both piano and chamber music. He continued his studies with Vlado Perlemuter, Pierre Sancan, and Jean Fassina, taking first prizes at the 1967 Viotti International Music Competition and Barcelona Competition. In 1970 Rouvier co-founded the Rouvier-Kantorow-Muller Trio, which, exceptionally, continues to perform. Several more prizes launched Rouvier into a successful recital career that encompassed appearances both within and beyond France. He has recorded some 50 albums beginning in the late 1960s, with a repertoire centered on French music and including a cycle of Maurice Ravel's complete piano music that was honored with a Grand Prix du Disque award; the set appeared on the Calliope label in 2003, and Rouvier has also recorded for Denon, Erato, Indesens, and Dal Segno. In 2018 he joined conductor David Fray (one of his former students), the String Ensemble of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, and pianists Emmanuel Christien and Audrey Vigoureux (also Rouvier students) for an Erato recording of Bach's concertos for multiple keyboards. Rouvier is perhaps best known in France as a teacher, beginning his career at age 28 as a professor at the Paris Conservatory. The list of his musically prominent students runs to nearly two dozen players and includes Hélène Grimaud, who depicted their intense relationship in her memoir Wild Harmonies; Romain Descharmes, who has written of Rouvier as a "magician-psychologist"; Arcadi Volodos, Yin Zheng, Katharina Treutler, and, in the 2010s, Yuri Favorin. He has given master classes in many countries and offers piano lessons online.