Stéphane Ginsburgh


Stéphane Ginsburgh 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.
Ginsburgh 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 into his programs. He collaborates regularly with the Ictus Ensemble.
Ginsburgh has 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.
He has been awarded the Belgian composers' union prize for his achievements in performing Belgian contemporary music. From 1990 on, Ginsburgh has been a member of the Bureau des Pianistes and since 1991, he participates actively in the Contemporary Music Spring Festival Ars Musica in Brussels. In 1998, he 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

Ginsburgh has performed at important festivals such as Agora at IRCAM, Ars Musica, Festival de Wallonie, Festival van Vlaanderen, Tzlil Meudcan Festival, Festival Transit, Milano Musica, Festival Next Wave, Festival de Marseille, Festival Courtisane, Artefact Festival, Festival Midis-Minimes, Festival Loop, Biennale Charleroi-Danse, Gentsche Feesten, Moscow Autumn Contemporary Music Festival, Les Nuits Botanique, Quincena Musical, Imatronic/Piano+ ZKM, and Darmstädter Ferienkurse.

Prizes

Among many CD releases, Ginsburgh's renditions of Marcel Duchamp's Erratum Musical and Morton Feldman's Last Pieces received praising reviews by New York critics. He has recorded three albums with music by Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Morton Feldman. His latest album for Sub Rosa features For Bunita Marcus by Feldman. Other recent releases include a five-CD 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

Ginsburgh teaches piano and philosophy at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze and for several years has taught chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Liège and the music school of Mons. He was 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 has also written several articles about politics, and the interpretation of contemporary music.