About this Artist
Award winning French pianist DAVID FRAY was named “Newcomer of the Year 2008” by BBC Music Magazine. A frequent soloist with leading orchestras, David Fray has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Christoph Eschenbach, Kurt Masur, Pierre Boulez and Yannick Nézet-Séguin among many others, and also maintains an active career as a recitalist, performing in the most important concert halls across Europe.
David Fray made his United States debut in the summer of 2009 with the Cleveland Orchestra and went on later that season to perform with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the New York Philharmonic. Other recent orchestral appearances were with the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de Paris, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and at the Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw, performing concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel, Bach and others. In July and August 2010 he performed at the Hollywood Bowl with Los Angeles Philharmonic and at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. In November 2010 he makes his Carnegie Hall recital debut.
David Fray has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Banque Populaire prize and study grant; the Diploma for Outstanding Merit at the Fifth International Hamamatsu Competition in Japan; the “Young Soloist of the Year Award” (the highest prize awarded by the Commission of French speaking public radio stations); the Feydeau de Brou Saint Paul grant and the “Classical Discovery Prize” from ADAMI, the French society for the collective administration of performers’ rights. In 2004 at the Montreal International Music Competition, David Fray took both the Second Grand Prize, and the Prize for Best Interpretation of a work by a Canadian composer. As a result, the record label ATMA Classique released his first CD with works by Liszt and Schubert.
Since 2007 an exclusive Virgin Classics artist, David Fray devoted his first Virgin recording to Bach and Boulez. The newspapers “Le Soir” in Belgium and the “London Times” in England praised it as “best record of the year”. Mr. Fray’s second release, the four keyboard concertos by Bach recorded with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen led to his being named “Instrumentalist of the Year – Piano” for 2009 by the German Recording Academy. His third recording for the label, dedicated to Schubert’s “Moments Musicaux” and “Impromptus,” was released in 2009. An excerpt from his recital of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy was released on DVD on the Ideale Audience label. In December 2008 the German/French TV network ARTE +7 presented an hour long documentary about him, directed by renowned French director Bruno Monsaingeon. The film, “David Fray records Johann Sebastian Bach,” was released on DVD with a bonus performance of the three concertos.
David Fray started taking piano lessons at the age of four. He furthered his studies with Jacques Rouvier at the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris where he graduated with highest honours. David Fray makes his home in Paris.