Claire-Marie Le Guay & François Salque

Claire-Marie Le Guay “structures her performance with sweeping gestures, as if tracing the movements of an inner clock concealed beneath the eloquence of the song.” (Pianiste).

A soloist on the international stage and winner of the Victoires de la Musique awards, Claire-Marie Le Guay has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Philharmonie de Paris, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Festival de La Roque d’Anthéron, and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Germany. A laureate of several international competitions, she performs with equal dedication in recitals, chamber music (with François Salque, Amaury Coeytaux, Magali Mosnier and the Modigliani Quartet, among others) and in concertos with numerous orchestras, such as the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich, the Camerata Salzburg, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica, the New Japan Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, and the Staatskapelle Weimar, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim and Louis Langrée, with whom she has notably recorded the concertos by Liszt, Ravel and Schulhoff.

Her extensive discography has been acclaimed by critics; the British magazine Gramophone described it as a “masterful contribution”. DECCA has released three box sets of her recordings, featuring works by Haydn, Mozart and Liszt, as well as Ravel, Gubaidulina and Escaich. 

With the release of her recording "Joies de l’âme" in 2021, Claire-Marie Le Guay returned to Liszt, whose interpretation had brought her to the attention of the general public when she was just 19. Following "Voyage en Russie" and "Schubert Wanderer" with François Salque, she returns to the recording studio with "Bach, Ecouter la lumière", her second album dedicated to the composer.

Her wide-ranging repertoire includes the music of her own time (Thierry Escaich, to whom several works are dedicated and of whom she is one of the most faithful interpreters; Sofia Gubaidulina, whose piano pieces and the concerto Introitus she has recorded with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra; as well as Guillaume Connesson, Henri Dutilleux and Bruno Mantovani).

After studying at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMDP), Claire-Marie Le Guay continued her training at the Lake Como Piano Foundation, where she was a laureate, studying with musical figures such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Alicia de Larrocha and Andreas Staier, as well as in Berlin with Daniel Barenboim.

Placing great importance on passing on her knowledge, Claire-Marie Le Guay has been teaching at the CNSMDP and the Académie de musique française de l’École normale-Alfred Cortot since 2001. An Eisenhower Fellow in 2015 and Artistic Director of the Dinard Music Festival from 2018 to 2023, she collaborated with the Dijon Opera from 2012 to 2020 on initiatives to engage young audiences.

Claire-Marie Le Guay has been in residence at the Théâtre du Chesnay since 2019. She is the author of three books: "La Vie est plus belle en musique" (Flammarion, 2018) and "C’est la nuit qu’il est beau de croire à la lumière"(Flammarion, 2022). She has co-authored a book with Erik Orsenna, published by Éditions Albin Michel: "Que la joie demeure, vivre avec Bach", due to be released in spring 2026, alongside her recording "Bach, écouter la lumière", the programme of which is closely linked to the writing of the book.

March 2026