Skip to page content

Frank Braley

About this Artist

FRANK BRALEY was born in 1968 and began his piano studies at the age of four. Six years later he gave his first concert with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris at the Salle Pleyel. In 1986 he decided to devote himself entirely to music and abandoned his studies in science. He entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and three years later he was awarded unanimously first prizes for piano and chamber music.

In 1991, at the age of 22, he took part for the first time in an international competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition of Belgium, and won the First Grand Prize. Public and press unanimously recognize him as a pianist with exceptional musical and poetic qualities.

Since then, Braley has been regularly invited to Japan, Canada, the United States, and all over Europe, and has worked with conductors such as Stéphane Denève, Charles Dutoit, Hans Graf, Gunther Herbig, Christopher Hogwood, Eliahu Inbal, Marek Janowski, Armin Jordan, Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Yehudi Menuhin, and Antonio Pappano. He has also given recitals with the violinist Renaud Capuçon, and has participated in special projects, such as Beethoven’s piano sonata cycle.

For Harmonia Mundi, he has recorded Schubert’s Sonata in A major, D. 959, and Klavierstücke, D. 946 (for which he received the Diapason d’Or), Strauss’ works for piano solo, Beethoven sonatas, and Gershwin’s complete piano music. For Virgin Classics he has recorded Ravel’s chamber music with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Saint-Saëns’ Carnaval des Animaux, and Schubert’s Trout Quintet. For BMG, he has recorded Poulenc’s Double Concerto with Eric Le Sage and conductor Denève, which was awarded the Diapason d’Or. For Naïve, he has been featured on a DVD that includes Liszt, Debussy, and Gershwin (Choc – Monde de la Musique). His most recent recording is Schubert’s Trios with Renaud and Gautier Capuçon.

2/08