French pianist Romain Descharmes attended the Conservatoire régional du Grand Nancy, where he studied piano and won a gold medal at age 14. At 18, he relocated to Paris and studied with Jacques Rouvier, Christian Ivaldi, Jean Koerner, Bruno Rigutto, and Anne Grappotte. He also participated in the master classes of Idil Biret, John O'Conor, Dimitri Bashkirov, and Oxana Yablonskaya. In 2006, Descharmes won first prize in the Dublin International Piano Competition, and embarked on a series of recitals that took him to New York, London, Yokohama, Tokyo, and Paris. A breakthrough performance with the Orchestre de Paris in 2012 brought Descharmes critical attention. He has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras in France, Sweden, and Canada, and given recitals in the U.K., Germany, Serbia, Turkey, India, and Mexico, as well as performing for radio broadcasts. He is also actively involved with chamber music, and has performed with Henri Demarquette, Roland Daugareil, François Salque, Sarah Nemtanu, Deborah Nemtanu, Lise Berthaud, Pierre Fouchenneret, Laurent Korcia, the Court-Circuit Ensemble, and the Ebène Quartet. He performs regularly with Stéphane Logerot, Jean-Marc Phillips Varjabédian, François Desforges, and Jean-Luc Manca, who together form the chamber ensemble Quai n°5, and with whom he has recorded two albums on Decca. Descharmes also performs as a member of Trio Talweg. Descharmes and Fouchenneret also recorded the complete sonatas for violin and piano of Beethoven for Aparte, and Descharmes has recorded Ravel's piano music for Audite, and Saint-Saëns' piano concertos for Naxos. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi