Stéphane Ginsburgh

Stéphane Ginsburgh (born 27 November 1969) is a Belgian pianist of Austrian origin.

Biography 
Ginsburgh was born in Brussels. After graduating from the Royal Music Conservatories of Mons and Liège in piano and chamber music, Ginsburgh studied with Paul Badura-Skoda, Vitaly Margulis and particularly Claude Helffer in Paris for contemporary music and Jerome Lowenthal in New York.

He holds a B.A. in philosophy of science from the Université libre de Bruxelles and a Ph.D. in Arts from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

He appears regularly in recitals and chamber music in Europe, the Middle East, Russia and the United States. He performs Contemporary music as well as the Classical and Romantic repertoires that he often associates in his programs. He collaborates regularly with the Ictus Ensemble. He performed and premiered pieces by Newton Armstrong, Vykintas Baltakas, Guy Barash, Philippe Boesmans, Renaud De Putter, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Fabian Fiorini, Panayiotis Kokoras, Pierre Kolp, György Kurtág, Philipp Maintz, Benoît Mernier, Stefan Prins, André Ristic, Frederic Rzewski, François Sarhan, Sabrina Schroeder, Matthew Shlomowitz and Juan Carlos Tolosa.

Ginsburgh has been awarded the Belgian composers' union prize for his implication in performing Belgian contemporary music. He regularly plays with the Ictus Ensemble under George-Elie Octors. From 1990 on, member of the Bureau des Pianistes and since 1991, he participates actively to the Contemporary Music Spring Festival Ars Musica in Brussels. In 1998, Ginsburgh co-founded Le Bureau des Arts now Sonar, an active group of artists dedicated to different types of artistic expression and creation including music, dance and literature. He was artistic director of the  dedicated to electronic music and live electronics from 2010 until 2013.

Festivals 
He performed at important festivals such as Agora at IRCAM (Paris), Ars Musica (Brussels), Festival de Wallonie, Festival van Vlaanderen, Tzlil Meudcan Festival (Tel-Aviv), Festival Transit (Leuven), Milano Musica, Festival Next Wave (New York), Festival de Marseille, Festival Courtisane (Gent), Artefact Festival (Leuven), Festival Midis-Minimes (Brussels), Festival Loop (Brussels), Biennale Charleroi-Danse, Gentsche Feesten, Moscow Autumn Contemporary Music Festival, Les Nuits Botanique (Brussels), Quincena Musical (San Sebastián), Imatronic/Piano+ ZKM, Darmstädter Ferienkurse.

Prizes 
 Prize Tenuto BRTN 1995, Belgium
 Fondation Schlumberger, Académie Musicale de Villecroze, France
 Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara, US
 Fondation SPES, Brussels
 Prix Pelemans 1999 for interpretation of Belgian contemporary music, Brussels

Discography 
Among many CD releases, Marcel Duchamp's Erratum Musical and Morton Feldman Last Pieces received praising reviews by New York critics. He recorded three CDs with music by Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Morton Feldman. His latest CD for Sub Rosa features For Bunita Marcus by Morton Feldman. Other recent releases include a five CDs box for Sub Rosa with Feldman's complete piano music, The Bad-Tempered Electronic Keyboard - 24 Preludes and Fugues by Anthony Burgess for Grand Piano/Naxos Records and Sergei Prokofiev's complete piano sonatas for Cypres records.

Selected recordings 
 Pieces For More Than Two Hands, Morton Feldman, Sub Rosa, 1991
 Chorée, Renaud De Putter, Sub Rosa, 1998
 Is, Renaud De Putter, Sub Rosa, 1999
 Melencholia si..., Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Sub Rosa, 2001
 Erratum Musical, Marcel Duchamp, Sub Rosa, 2001
 Last Pieces, Morton Feldman, Sub Rosa, 2001
 For Bunita Marcus, Morton Feldman, Sub Rosa, 2006
 Vexations, Erik Satie, Sub Rosa, 2008
 Back to, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Sub Rosa, 2013
 Beth/Veth, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Sub Rosa, 2014
 Complete piano sonatas, Sergei Prokofiev, Cypres records, 2015
 Quartet for piano, David Toub, World Edition, 2016
 The Bad-Tempered Electronic Keyboard - 24 Preludes and Fugues, Anthony Burgess, Grand Piano/Naxos Records, 2018
 Augmented, Stefan Prins, Kairos, 2019

Other activities 
Ginsburgh teaches piano and philosophy at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze and has taught for several years chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Liège and the music school of Mons. He has been assistant for the piano at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels from 2012 until 2018.

He translated Eric Hobsbawm's Uncommon People: Resistance, Rebellion and Jazz into French for Aden Editions. He also wrote several articles about politics, and the interpretation of contemporary music.

Notes

External links 
 Ginsburgh's website
 The Speaking Pianist
 Sonar

Category:1969 births
Category:Living people
Category:People from Brussels
Category:Belgian classical pianists
Category:Jewish classical pianists
Category:Belgian people of Russian-Jewish descent
Category:Belgian people of Austrian descent
Category:Naturalised citizens of Belgium
Category:21st-century classical pianists
Category:Free University of Brussels alumni