Pianist and composer Beatrice Berrut has been described by the Irish Times as an artist who “calmly revelled in multiple layers of genius and beauty”.

Her work as a soloist, composer, arranger and artistic director of the Les Ondes festival she founded in Switzerland has ensured her reputation as a cultural visionary on the European scene. She has performed as a soloist on major European stages, with orchestras like the English Chamber Orchestra, performed at London’s Cadogan Hall and Geneva’s Victoria Hall, in sold-out concerts broadcast on German NDR radio at the Hannover Staatsoper with the Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester, and in recitals presenting her transcriptions of Mahler symphonies in concert halls such as the Vienna Konzerthaus and London’s Wigmore Hall.

Inspired by Mahler’s quote that “tradition is not the adoration of the ashes, but the preservation of fire”, she wrote a paraphrase of Arnold Schoenberg’s legendary ‘Transfigured Night’ that was hailed by the composer’s son and the pianist community.

Her art of transforming Mahler’s titanic orchestra into rich, lush piano scores is highly regarded by her peers as well as by the press, as these lines from Le Monde attests: "Her treatment of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies transforms the solid gold of the orchestra into the liquid gold of the piano". She will soon be a soloist for the Copenhagen Phil and the Dortmunder Philharmoniker.

Beatrice Berrut has been a Bösendorfer artist since 2013.

Languages spoken: English, French, Deutsch

Photo credit: ARR