Baptiste Trotignon

Born near Paris in 1974, Baptiste Trotignon grew up in the Loire region, outside Saumur. He started playing the piano when he was 8, and a few years later he joined the Nantes Conservatory, where he won prizes for piano and harmony. In his teenage years, he dis- covered and taught himself jazz and improvisation, performing his first concerts at the age of sixteen. In 1994 he appeared as actor and musician in Alain Corneau’s film Le Nouveau Monde, deciding to move to Paris the following year. In 1998 he formed his trio with Clovis Nicolas (double bass) and Tony Rabeson (drums), a development that provided inva- luable experience as a bandleader. Released in June 2000, his debut album Fluide revealed him as one of the most spectacular, broad-ranging and fascinating pianists of his generation. The album won a Django d’Or for Best First Record in March 2001. In October 2002 he won the Grand Prix de la Ville de Paris at the Martial Solal International Jazz Competition, and a few months later he also received the French Newcomer of the Year award at the Victoires du Jazz 2003. Whilst simultaneously working on an extremely broad range of projects (concerts as a duo with top-flight improvisers such as Tom Harrell and Brad Mehldau, as well as with the classical pianist Nicholas Angelich; classical experiences playing the Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F from George Gershwin with Orchestre Lamoureux; music for Claude Goretta’s film Sartre), he develop a musical style that is resolutely open-minded. Fall 2008, his label Naive re-releases for its 10 years anniversary his first solo album brought together with a piano solo recital recorded Salle Pleyel in May 2008. For this occasion, he takes part in Naive night at Theatre des Bouffes du Nord where he plays with Anne Gastinel notably. In 2011, as well as further original stage performances (duos with Alexandre Tharaud for example), he started writing of Different Spaces, his first piano concerto for Nicholas Angelich and the Orchestre national Bordeaux Aquitaine. Created in 2012, this first major orchestral work, written entirely without improvisation, was received with great enthusiasm at its creation and led Baptiste Trotignon to develop these kinds of projects In 2018, while he becomes "Steinway Artist" and receives the prestigious Echo Jazz award in Germany as Best Instrumentalist-Keyboards category, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France creates his first symphonic piece Hiatus et turbulences, just after he wrote for choir for Vocello ensemble with Henri Demarquette), or a piano solo Prelude for Philippe Cassard... At the end of the year is also created his second piece for piano and orchestra L'air de rien, Commission from Orchestre National d'Île-de-France. In November 2019, before beginning composing for a new Commission, Move, Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra premiere at the beginning of 2020 by Romain Leleu and the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra (Finland), (Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra with Romain Leleu) before the work will tour throughout France with a prestigious panel of co-commissioning chamber orchestras.