Nicolas Horvath

At 10, Nicolas Horvath is selected for a program initiated by Monaco's Princess Grace for children with musical predispositions. He received the Academie de Musique Prince Rainier III Prize unanimously with the congratulations of the jury.

At the age of 15, during an Academie de Musique Prince Rainier III competition, he was discovered by the conductor Lawrence Foster who obtained a scholarship from Princess Grace Foundation allowing him to work for three consecutive summers at Aspen Music Festival and School with Gabriel Chodos. On his return, he worked for two years with Gérard Frémy who introduced him to contemporary music.

In 1998, he joined the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. In 2002, he started to work for four years with Bruno Leonardo Gelber and Germaine Deveze who asked him not to give any concert or participate in any competition during his apprenticeship. Then, he left Ecole Normale. In 2004, he joined Gino Favotti's electroacoustic composition class where he received masterclasses from François Bayle and Christian Zanési and in 2006 Christine Groult's electroacoustic composition class.

From 2008 to 2011 he won numerous international competitions such as the Luigi Nono Competition, Alexander Scriabin, Osaka, Fukuoka, Yokohama... In 2010, he joined the Oxana Yablonskaya Piano School and The International Certificate for Piano Artists. Meetings with Leslie Howard, Gabriel Tacchino, Philippe Entremont, and Éric Heidsieck, mark his career.

Nicolas Horvath collaborates with composers such as Régis Campo, Denis Levaillant, Jaan Rääts, Tõnu Kõrvits, Alvin Curran, Fabio Mengozzi, William Susman, Alp Durmaz, Andre Bangambula Vindu, Mamoru Fujieda ... he ensures the creation of pieces of more than two hundred composers and more than a hundred pieces are dedicated to him. Nicolas Horvath also plays little-known works such as Franz Liszt's Christus, Claude Debussy's The Fall of the House of Usher, the complete version of Erik Satie's The Son of the Stars as well as forgotten, neglected composers such as Moondog, Hélène de Montgeroult, Ludovic Lamothe, Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, Nobuo Uematsu, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Karl August Hermann...

Nicolas Horvath stands out by organizing marathon concerts such as Erik Satie's Vexations which he performed 12 times alone and without any stop or break, the Nights of Minimalist Piano[1] and the complete Erik Satie or Philip Glass piano music.

On April 21, 2012, with Andrea Clanetti Santarossa, they did in Monaco's Entrepot Gallery the very first Monacan happening on La Monte Young music. Some of the audience was scandalized by it and left the gallery shouting.[2]

On December 12, 2012, he gave in Paris's museum Palais de Tokyo a non-stop solo version of 35 hours of Erik Satie's Vexations. Starting December 12 at noon and ending December 13 at 11 pm; it is currently the longest solo piano and non-stop version ever.[3]

From the June 23 to July 27, 2013, he was invited by the DO NOT OPEN Gallery in Brussel to give his first exhibit, highly influenced by Clyfford Still & Hermann Nitsch[4]

On April 11, 2014, in the Palais de Tokyo, he premiered the GlassWorlds, a gigantic Philip Glass Homage where 120 composers from 56 countries and all musical genres wrote a work for this program.[5]

On January 9, 2015, in Carnegie Hall, New York, he premiered the Complete 20 Philip Glass Etudes.[6]

On October 10 to 12, 2015, in Paris's Le Grand Rex, for the 1st encore of Danny Elfman's anniversary concert, Nicolas Horvath was in duet with the composer himself to perform Elfman's Oogie Boogie's song.

On October 31, 2015, The Gallery of Estonia (the Estonian pavilion) as part of the Milan World Expo closing day invited him to give the first Jaan Rääts music only recital.[7]

On May 25, 2016, he gave a Jaan Rääts recital at Strasbourg European Parliament for the inauguration Ceremony of Estonia at the lead of the Council of Europe.[8]

On the night of October 1 to 2, 2016, at the Paris Philharmonie Boulez Hall, he gave an 11-hour-long marathon with all the Philip Glass piano music, and received a one-hour-long standing ovation where he performed 9 encores.[9]

In April 2017, he requested to all Jaan Rääts' students, such as Erkki-Sven Tüür, Tõnu Kõrvits, Timo Steiner, Kerri Kotta ... to compose each of them an exclusive piece for an all-Estonia Jaan Rääts Homage tour (for the 85th anniversary of composer).[10]

On March 18, 2018, he gives a world premiere in Nantes during the Festival Variations the complete piano music of Erik Satie.[11]

On March 24, 2018, he is invited by the Labenche Museum in Brive-la-Gaillarde to give a Claude Debussy recital for his centenary on the composer's last piano. During this concert Nicolas Horvath premiered Claude Debussy works completed by the musicologist Robert Orledge.[12]

On September 9, 2018, he gives the world premiere of Moondog 's Complete Book of Canons n°1, 2 & 3 and The Great Canon in Toulouse for the Opening Concert of the Moondog Season and for the Piano aux Jacobins Festival.[13]

On April 28, 2019, he is the first pianist ever to perform in a single concert and without any break all 15 Karlheinz Stockhausen 's Klavierstuke for solo piano in Nantes for the Variations Festival.[14]

On Mai 17 & 18, 2019, he was selected by Philip Glass himself to perform during the Philip Glass & Friends concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris Glass' etudes 13 & 14.[15]

• Thérèse Brenet : Le Visionnaire, Editions Musik Fabrik, 2012
• Claude Debussy : The Unknown Debussy - Rare Piano Music"", Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2020
• Cornelius Cardew : Treatise (Harsh-Noise version) OCLC 940512655, Demerara Records, 2016
• Karl Czerny : 30 Études de Mécanisme, Op. 849 OCLC 1127643409, Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2019
• Karl August Hermann : Complete Piano Music OCLC 1051435520, Toccata Classics, 2018
• Franz Liszt : Christus OCLC 917894190, Editions Horus, 2012[16]
• Philip Glass : GlassWorlds, vol.1 OCLC 9052395389,[17] Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2015
• Philip Glass : GlassWorlds, vol.2 OCLC 919318502,[18] Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2015
• Philip Glass : GlassWorlds, vol.3 OCLC 933308819,[19] Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2016
• Philip Glass : GlassWorlds, vol.4 OCLC 986241205[20] Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2016
• Philip Glass : GlassWorlds, vol.5 OCLC 1016456741,[21] Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2016
• Philip Glass : GlassWorlds, vol.6 OCLC 1127173041, Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2019
• Philip Glass : Essentials : LP 80th anniversary tribute OCLC 978302041, Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2017
• Nicolas Horvath : Twilight Amorphousness Of The Vague Abysses, Valse Sinistre Productions, 2015
• Nicolas Horvath : At The Mountains Of Madness, Valse Sinistre Productions, 2015
• Nicolas Horvath : The Dreams In The Witch-House, Valse Sinistre Productions, 2015
• Nicolas Horvath : La Tentation d'exister, AH AH AH Éditions – LBDLC, 2015
• Nicolas Horvath : Acedia, Demerara Records, 2016
• Jaan Rääts : Complete Piano Sonatas Vol.1 OCLC 1004345009,[22] Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2017
• Erik Satie : Complete Piano Works, New Salabert Edition vol.1 OCLC 1000300962,[23] Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2017
• Erik Satie : Complete Piano Works, New Salabert Edition vol.2 OCLC 1018313315,[24] Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2018
• Erik Satie : Complete Piano Works, New Salabert Edition vol.3 OCLC 1032830188, Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2018
• Erik Satie : Complete Piano Works, New Salabert Edition vol.4 OCLC 1120211918, Naxos – Grand Piano Records, 2019
• Michael Vincent Waller : The South Shore (Pasticcio per meno è più) OCLC 908574406, XI Records, 2015
• Claude Debussy, Marcel Duchamp, Olivier Greif, Jean Catoire, Philippe Hersant : The French avant-garde in the 20th century OCLC 971575519, LTM Recordings, 2014

• Official website.
• GlassWorlds project official website.
• Naxos' Nicolas Horvath miniwebsite.
• Discogs page.
• Steinway Artists' Nicolas Horvath minisite.
• French Interview.
• English Interview.