Piano

Marc Laforet, a French pianist of Russian descent, made his concert début at the age of eight at the Champs-Élysées Theatre.  Trained at the CNSM in Paris by Pierre Sancan, he had the privilege of being guided and encouraged by Arthur Rubinstein.  A Cziffra Foundation gold medal winner, laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York in 1985 and in the same year became a laureate of the International Frederic Chopin Competition in Warsaw:  silver medal, public prize, mazurkas prize, radio-television prize. 

He lead an international career and was invited by some of the greatest orchestral formations in Europe and Japan, conducted, by Daniel Barenboïm, Valery Gergiev, George Prêtre, Armin Jordan, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Eliahu Inbal, among others.  M. Laforet has collaborated with Vladimir Spivakov since 1997.

Naturally Chopin holds a very significant place in his discography with two Concertos recorded with R. Barshaï then K. Kord conducting, 24 Preludes, Sonata No. 3, and the complete Waltzes.  Laforet also had the privilege of giving a recital in the home of the composer, at Place Vendôme in Paris on the evening of the 150th anniversary of his death (1999).

Artistic advisor for the European Young Concert Artists Auditions in Paris, since 2003 Laforet has also been the artistic director of the “Grands Crus Musicaux” Festival, held each year in the chateaux of the Bordeaux region.