OLIVIER BAUMONT

    Considered one of the most eminent harpsichordists in his generation, Olivier Baumont has enjoyed a prolific career as soloist, teacher, and scholar over the past four decades. Hosted by prominent festivals in France and abroad, he has appeared in numerous countries: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Canada, Croatia, Spain, the United States, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Turkey.

 

    Olivier Baumont’s discography, regularly hailed in periodicals worldwide, includes about sixty recordings, mostly as soloist. Among its titles are the complete works for harpsichord by F. Couperin (recently rereleased by Erato), pieces by Bach, Handel, Purcell, Telemann, and Russian and American composers from the Enlightenment. His recordings also include the complete works for the harpsichord by Rameau, Chambonnières, and Daquin, and a recital with pieces from the end of the Ancient Regime on the organ and the pianoforte. Recently, together with Julien Chauvin (violin), he issued a disk devoted to rare works by Simon, Dauvergne, Rameau et Cardonne, “A Madame,” a recording devoted to Couperin’s Apothéoses with Béatrice Martin (harpsichord), and a disk entitled “Un clavecin pour Marcel Proust” marking the anniversary of the death of the writer in 2022. For Plectra Music, he is currently recording a series of four disks of French harpsichord music from the Enlightenment on prestigious historical instruments from the Flint Collection in Delaware: the complete works by Jacques Duphly and a program of works by Michel Corrette.

 

 

    Olivier Baumont has written a book on François Couperin (Découvertes-Gallimard), another on Vivaldi (Gallimard-Jeunesse), and, in collaboration with the Établissement public du château de Versailles and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, a large-scale study on La Musique à Versailles (Actes Sud), and La Musique dans les Mémoires de Saint-Simon: ‘A l'Opéra Monsieur!’ (“L’Infini,” Gallimard) and Tombeau du jeune monsieur de Cinq-Mars (Arléa). His latest book, “D’une partition m’apparaissait un dessin,” was published in late 2024 (Bleu Nuit éditeur).

 

    An accomplished pedagogue, Olivier Baumont has been since September 2001 the professor in the harpsichord class at the Conservatoire national supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris; he has taught numerous harpsichordists, many of whom are among the most gifted and active in the current musical scene.

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Visit Olivier's website HERE.