David Fray

Born in 1981, David Fray began his musical studies at the age of four. In 1995, he was awarded gold medals in piano, music theory, and chamber music at the Conservatoire de Tarbes, his hometown. That same year, he won the Young Talents Competition in Aix-en-Provence, which led to a performance the following year of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Manchester Sinfonia under the direction of Michael Brandt.

Admitted unanimously to the piano class of Jacques Rouvier at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, he earned his Diplôme de formation supérieure with the distinction “très bien” at the Prix recital, where he also received the Feydeau de Brou Saint-Paul Scholarship. David Fray has also benefited from the guidance of such prominent figures as Dimitri Bashkirov, Paul Badura-Skoda, and Christoph Eschenbach. Since January 2004, he has been a laureate and scholarship recipient of the Banque Populaire Foundation.

During the 2002–2003 season, David Fray gave numerous recitals at the Cité de la musique and the Théâtre Mogador in Paris, at the Festival de La Roque-d’Anthéron, and at the Alti Hall in Kyoto, Japan. He also performed several times on the airwaves of France Musique. His return to La Roque-d’Anthéron in the summer of 2004 was particularly noted, and an excerpt of his recital (Schubert’s Wanderer-Fantasie) was released on DVD. In March 2005, he performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major at the Théâtre Mogador, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.

Among the many prizes and distinctions David Fray has received are the Diploma of Outstanding Merit at the Fifth Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan, Young Soloist of the Year from the French-language Public Radio Commission (CRPLF)—its highest award—and the Révélation Classique distinction from ADAMI in France.

In 2004, David Fray won the Second Grand Prize as well as the Prize for Best Performance of the Commissioned Canadian Work (Jacques Hétu’s Impromptu, of which he became the dedicatee) at the Montreal International Musical Competition. As a direct result of this success, ATMA Classique offered him a recording contract.

Following the release of his debut recording with ATMA (Liszt–Schubert), David Fray embarked on a major South American tour (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay) in the fall of 2005 and was invited to perform with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal under Yannick Nézet-Séguin in February 2006.