Hélène Mercier

Born in Montreal, Hélène Mercier starts her piano studies at the age of six and quickly wins recognition by getting first honours at the Quebec and Canadian Music Competitions in piano solo and piano-violin. She is also an award winner of the Prague International Chamber Music Competition.
At the age of fifteen, she enters Dieter Weber’s class at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. She later studies at the Juilliard School in New York with Sasha Gorodnitski, after having been awarded a scholarship subsequent to her admissions audition. She then goes to France where she studies under Pierre Sancan of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, and with Germaine Mounier at the Ecole Normale de Musique. She also works with Maria Curcio, Stanislav Neuhaus, and in chamber music, with Gidon Kremer and Henryk Szeryng during summer sessions.
Hélène Mercier now lives in Paris, and participates frequently in prestigious festivals in France, among which those held in Aix-en-Provence, Menton, Colmar, Nohant, Evian, Reims, La Chaise-Dieu, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse and Radio-France in Montpellier. She is also heard at France-Musique, Radio Classique, France-Culture, Radio-Suisse-Romande, Radio-Canada and CBS in USA. In Europe and in North America, she regularly performs as soloist and chamber music player: in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Salle Pleyel and the Salle Gaveau, in London at the South Bank Centre, in Germany at the  Konzerthaus of Berlin and at the Gewandhaus of Leipzig, in Brussels at the salle Flagey and the Conservatory, in Italy at the Villa Medici, in Milan at the Teatro Dal Verme, at the Piccolo Teatro and the Conservatory, at the Music Academy of Sienna, in the Teatro Comunale of Ferrara, at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa,in Torino at the Lingotto Auditorium and the Teatro Regio, at the Echternach International Music Festival in Luxembourg, in Athens at the Megaron Hall....and elsewhere, in Geneva, Monte-Carlo, Madrid, Moscow, Warsaw, Sofia, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and New York. She is also invited to play with several different European and North American orchestras: amongst others, at the Brescia-Bergamo International Festival, in Monaco with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, in Minneapolis and St. Paul with the Minnesota Orchestra, in Texas with the Forth Worth Symphony. In Paris, she performs under the direction of Zubin Mehta with the Israël Philharmonic Orchestra and under the direction of Kurt Masur at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. She also plays with the Russian National Orchestra and the National Philharmonic of Russia conducted by Vladimir Spivakov and in Canada with the orchestras of Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal under the direction of Charles Dutoit,Trevor Pinnock and Long Yu. With the Orchestre de Paris, under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, she plays the Triple Concerto of Beethoven with Natalia Gutman and Salvatore Accardo.She records with the BBC Philharmonic under the direction of Edward Gardner and with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi.
She performs with the violinist Vladimir Spivakov in Paris, Saint Petersburg, Montreal, at the Festival of Colmar and the Festival of Evian.
She performs with the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich in Copenhagen and Paris.
In Japan, she plays with the New Japan Philharmonic under the direction of Seiji Ozawa.
At the request of the conductor Kurt Masur, she joins the Gewandhaus Quartet of Leipzig for a series of concerts. She also performs with the Leipzig Quartet, the Moscow Virtuosi soloists,with the violinists Renaud Capuçon,Olivier Charlier,Ivry Gitlis, Laurent Korcia,and the cellists Gautier Capuçon,Henri Demarquette and Truls Mork.Her activities in chamber music flourish as well with the two pianos formation where she plays with different pianists: Boris Berezovsky, Frank Braley, Brigitte Engerer, Cyprien Katsaris, Louis Lortie, Bruno Rigutto…
With Louis Lortie, five recordings for Chandos featuring works from Ravel, Mozart, Schubert, Poulenc, Rachmaninov and Saint Saens have gathered the most outstanding reviews across the world. The prestigious London magazine Gramophone ranked them as among the «TOP SIX» in their Quarterly Retrospect and Editor's choice. The Penguin Guide awarded them the highest distinction: «The Rosette».
With the violinist Vladimir Spivakov, she has recorded a CD dedicated to Ernest Chausson, under the label “Capriccio”. This recording has collected a considerable success both by critics and public and it has received the disk “Choc” of “Le Monde de la Musique”.
With Cyprien Katsaris, she has recorded a CD featuring works from Schumann and Brahms.
Hélène Mercier is “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”.