Jean-Francois Latour

The vibrant young Canadian pianist Jean-François Latour has established a reputation as a poetic and

imaginative artist with brilliant technique and a strong personal voice who can communicate across

cultures and generations. Leon Fleisher, with whom he studied at the Peabody Conservatory in

Baltimore, calls Latour "a highly gifted and intelligent young artist with fine musical instincts." Recognized

as one of Canada's most talented young pianists, Jean-François Latour has performed throughout

Canada at major venues such as the Institut Canadien in Québec City, the National Arts Center in

Ottawa, and the Place des Arts in Montréal and in many major cities of Europe and North America,

including Paris, Toulouse, Geneva, Hamburg, Brussels, Washington D.C., Baltimore and Chicago. He

was named Young Soloist of the Year by the French Language Public Radio Network. As a result, M.

Latour's live performances have been broadcast by the Radio Suisse-Romande, Italian National Radio-

RAI, Belgian Radio-Television, and the Société Radio-Canada.

Jean-François Latour made his orchestral debut at the age of eleven with the Orchestre Symphonique de

Trois-Rivières. Since then, he has performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Victoria

Symphony, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, the

Hilton Head Orchestra and the Orchestre Symphonique de la Montérégie among others. He has played

under the direction of Timothy Vernon, Christopher Wilkins, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Victor Pull, Marc

David, Christopher Warren-Green, and Lara Webber. His festival appearances include the Orford Music

Festival, the Festival d'été de Québec, the Festival du Domaine Forget, the Festival de Lanaudière, the

Fontana Chamber Music Festival in Michigan, and the Vermont Mozart Festival. As a chamber musician,

Jean-François Latour has collaborated with Alain Trudel, Philippe Magnan, Yehonatan Berick, and the

Pacifica Quartet.

In 2005, M. Latour played the piano on stage in performances of Les 24 Préludes de Chopin by the Marie

Chouinard Dance Company in both Tokyo and Montréal. He also made his China debut with a recital and

master classes at the Wuhan Conservatory of Music. A documentary film of his visit was made for

national broadcast. Mr. Latour's honors include several first prizes in the Canadian Music Competition, a

top prize in the Stepping Stones Competition, and first prize in the Concours National de Piano de Sucy-

en-Brie in France. He served as a member of the jury for the 2004 Canadian Music Competition.

His first recording, released in 2007 with ATMA Classique, includes all-Chopin music.

In May 2002, Jean-François Latour completed the prestigious Artist Diploma program at the Peabody

Conservatory of Music, where he was a full scholarship student of Leon Fleisher. He also holds a

Graduate Performance Diploma from Peabody and an Artist Diploma from the Royal Conservatory of

Music in Toronto, where he was a student of Marc Durand and Leon Fleisher. He earned his Bachelor's

and Master's degrees at the University of Montréal, where he studied with Marc Durand.

Mr. Latour has also worked with John Perry, André Laplante, Ellen Mack, Marek Jablonsky and Gilbert

Kalish. M. Latour is now teaching piano at the Université de Sherbrooke. He resides in Montreal.