Emile Naoumoff was born in Sofia, Bulgaria on February twentieth, 1962 . He began to play the piano at the age of five, and started composing his own music a year later. At the age of eight, after a fateful meeting in Paris, he became Nadia Boulanger’s last disciple. He studied with her until her death in 1979. During this auspicious apprenticeship, Mademoiselle Boulanger gave Emile the opportunity to work with Clifford Curzon, Igor Markevitch, Robert and Gaby Casadesus, Nikita Magaloff, Jean Francaix, Leonard Bernstein, and Yehudi Menhuin. Lord Menhuin conducted the premiere of Emile’s first piano concerto, with the composer as a soloist when he was ten years old. At the same time, Emile pursued studies at the Paris Conservatory with Lelia Gousseau, Pierre Sancan, Genevieve Joy-Dutilleux, as well as at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with Pierre Dervaux.
Upon the death of Mlle. Boulanger, Emile took part of the instruction of some of her classes at the summer sessions of the Conservatoire d’Art Americain in Fontainebleau, which she co founded in 1921. At the same time, he developed a career as a published composer, (Schott; Mainz, Germany) and as a piano soloist while teaching at the Paris Conservatory. Some highlights of his performing career include a performance of the Grieg Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and a performance of his own piano concerto version of Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovich.
Just as Mlle. Boulanger, the last disciple of Gabriel Faure, felt the need to pass the torch to Emile, Emile feels compelled to share what he learned from her with the next generation. In 1996, he opened his own summer academy at the Chateau de Rangiport in Gargenville, France. In 1998 he accepted an associate piano professorship at Indiana University, in Bloomington.
More about Emile Naoumoff
http://naoumoff.com
Born in 1980 into a family of musicians, Simon Zaoui was drawn to the piano at an early age. His first mentor was Emile Naoumoff, and he then proceeded to the CNR in Boulogne-Billancourt where he worked with Marie-Paule Siruguet, Hortense Cartier-Bresson and Xavier Gagnepain. He obtained an unanimous First Prize in Piano as well as three First Prizes in Chamber Music. He then entered the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris in the class of Alain Planès and worked with Pierre Laurent Aimard, Christian Ivaldi and Jean Mouillère for chamber music. Further studies have been with Dimitri Bashkirov, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Idil Biret and Jean-François Heisser, among others. He obtained his Diploma in 2003.
Simon Zaoui is a member of the Alborada Trio, which has given many concerts and taken part in masterclasses with Gyorgy Kurtag, Ferenc Rados and Peter Csaba. In 2001 the Trio won Second Prize in the International Forum of Chamber Music. With the violonist Sarah Nemtanu, he was awarded Second Prize and a Special Prize in French Music at the Guérande Sonata Competition in 2001.
In 2002 he won First Prize at the Jean Françaix International Piano Competition and the Rotary-Club Prize of the Maurice Ravel Academy at St Jean de Luz. He is often heard on France Musique, broadcasting from the Festival of La Roque d'Anthéron, the Cité de la Musique in the Ligeti Cycle, the Auditorium of the Grenoble Museum and the Chamber Music Festival at St Jean-Cap Ferrat. He has appeared in the Carnegie Small Hall, and in Switzerland and Italy. In 2004 he participated in masterclasses with Menahem Pressler at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
Further information may be found at his personal website, simzaoui.googlepages.com.
