Jonathan Gilad

Jonathan Gilad (born 17 February 1981) is a French classical pianist.

Born in Marseille, Gilad started playing the piano at the age of 5. He quickly entered the Conservatoire de Marseille [fr] in Pierre Pradier's class and won a gold medal at the age of 11. In 1991, he won the First Grand Prix of the City of Marseille. This period was rich in awards: at 10 years old, in November 1991, Gilad obtained the special prize of the jury of the Mozart competition organized by the city of Paris, then in April 1992, the first prize of the international competition "Premio Mozart" for children under 14 years old, in Geneva. The same year he was awarded the Summer Academy Prize in Salzburg. He continued his training with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Salzbourg.

In October 1996 in Chicago, Gilad replaced Maurizio Pollini suffering and made his North American debut.

In April 1998, at 17, he played Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto at the Berlin festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim then he was the soloist on the American tour of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov and made his debut at the Carnegie Hall of New York.

In November 1998, his first recording was released, a Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms festival, published by EMI Classics as part of the "Début" series. This record earned him a nomination at the 1999 Victoires de la musique.

He has played at festivals (Ravinia, Aspen, Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Lucerne, andVerbier), andin prestigious venues (Carnegie Hall in New York, Herkulessaal in Munich, Wigmore Hall in London, the Berliner Philharmonie, andthe Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam). He hasperformed with many orchestras: the Chicago, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre national de France, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Orchestre philharmonique de Marseille, under the direction of Ricardo Casero Garrigues, Daniel Barenboim, Neville Marriner, Zubin Mehta, Eiji Ōue, Seiji Ozawa, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, Sandor Végh, Alain Lombard and also Tugan Sokhiev.

Gilad also plays regularly in chamber music with partners such as Julia Fischer, Mihaela Martin, Nikolaj Znaider, Viviane Hagner, Frans Helmerson, Daniel Müller-Schott, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon.

After his scientific classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles at the lycée Thiers [fr] in Marseille, Gilad obtained brilliant results in the entrance examinations: major in the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris competition, 2nd in the École centrale Paris competition, 3rd in his department at the École polytechnique and 6th in the École normale supérieure. He finally chose to join the École Polytechnique.

• Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 17
• Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 28
• Brahms's 25 variations and fugue on a Handel theme (EMI)
• Beethoven's 3 sonatas for piano (Lyrinx)
• Prokofiev's Sonata for piano No 1 and No 2, Suggestion diabolique
• Rachmaninov's Variations sur un thème de Corelli Op. 42, Préludes No 5 and No 12
• Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 10 K330, No 12 K332, No 14 K457 and Fantasia in C minor, K. 475 (Lyrinx)
• Mendelssohn's Trios, with Julia Fischer and Daniel Müller-Schott (Pentatone)
• Mendelssohn's Works for cello and piano - Daniel Müller-Schott (Orféo)