Jean Rondeau

Jean Rondeau (born 23 April, 1991) is a French harpsichordist and pianist. Early taught by Blandine Verlet, he was later educated at Paris' Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique. Rondeau won Young Soloist 2014 in the Prix des Radios Francophones Publiques and has gone on to release two solo albums.

Early life and education

Variously described as a "prodigy", a "badass virtuoso", and a classical music "sex symbol", Jean Rondeau began playing harpsichord at age six having first heard the instrument on the radio and declaring to his parents "I really want to make that sound". He ultimately spent a decade studying under Blandine Verlet. He went on to graduate from Paris' Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique and undertook further study at London's Guildhall School of Music where he was taught by Carole Cerasi and James Johnstone. In 2012 Rondeau won first place in the harpsichord competition at the Musica Antiqua Festival in Bruges, Belgium. The same year he was given the European Union's EUBO Development Trust Prize and won second-place at the Prague Spring International Harpsichord Competition.

Career

Rondeau won Young Soloist 2014 in the Prix des Radios Francophones Publiques. His debut solo album, Imagine, was released by Warner Music on the Erato label in 2015 and, in June of that year, Rondeau performed at the Embassy of France in Washington, D.C. in an engagement declared by press to be "the most auspicious Washington debut of the season". In 2016 his second solo album, Vertigo: Rameau, Royer, was released.

In addition to his solo work, Rondeau also performs with the Baroque quartet Nevermind and is the founding member of Note Forget, a jazz ensemble in which he performs on piano.

Critical reception

The Washington Post has described Rondeau as "a master of his instrument with the sort of communicative gifts normally encountered in musicians twice his age" and his playing as "masculine, direct and richly human". The Australian classical music magazine Limelight has written that Rondeau's playing "seems locked in a struggle between lyricism and contemplation, passion and detachment. Which is part of its magic."

Discography

• Imagine (2015)
• Vertigo: Rameau, Royer (2016)