French pianist Philippe Bianconi has been described as an artist whose playing is “always close to the soul of the music, filling the space with poetry and life” (Washington Post). After winning the Silver Medal in the Seventh Van Cliburn International Competition, Bianconi made an acclaimed recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 1987, and has enthralled audiences and critics throughout the world since.

During the 2007-2008 season, Bianconi has played the Saint-Saëns Concerto No. 2 with the Buffalo Philharmonic under JoAnn Falletta and the Prokofiev Concerto No. 3 with the Quebec Symphony under Yoav Talmi. He also gave recitals in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as performances throughout Europe. In the 2006-2007 season, he toured the United States with the Parisii Quartet, appeared in recital in Ohio and Virginia, and made his debut with the Berlin Radio Symphony.
In North America, Bianconi has appeared with the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Montreal, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Vancouver, and at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony under James Conlon. He has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Semyon Bychkov, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Marek Janowski, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, James Paul, Gennady Rozdestvensky, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Edo de Waart, and David Zinman.

Very active as a chamber musician and recitalist, Bianconi has collaborated with the Guarneri String Quartet, the Toyko String Quartet, Quartet Sine Nomine, and has worked with violinist Pierre Amoyal, violinist Tedi Papavrami, cellist Gary Hoffman, and flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, to name a few. He played Wigmore Hall in the chamber music series of the London Philharmonic, and made his Berlin recital debut with the “Klavier um Vier” series of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Bianconi lives in Paris and performs extensively in Europe. He has appeared with Europe’s premier orchestras, including the Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Halle Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Orchester der Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Paris, Nuremberg Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec, the Toulouse Orchestra, and the Strasbourg Philharmonic. Other international highlights include his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with James Conlon in the Paris Garnier Opera House, performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and a tour of Japan with performances broadcast on N.H.K. television.

Bianconi has recorded works of Ravel, Schumann and Schubert on the Lyrinx label. In 1996, his recording featuring the Schumann Symphonic Etudes won a prestigious “Choc de la Musique” award in France. His other recordings include the Brahms Piano Quintet with the Sine Nomine Quartet on the Claves label, works of Shostakovitch and Prokofiev with cellist Gary Hoffman on Le Chant du Monde label and Schubert lieder cycles with Hermann Prey on Denon.

He attended the Conservatory in Nice where he studied with Simone Delbert-Fevrier. In Paris he studied with Gaby Casadesus and in Freiburg-in-Breisgau with Vitalij Margulis. Bianconi was the first-prize winner of both the Casadesus International Competition in Cleveland and the Jeunesses Musicales International Competition in Belgrade.