Simon Ghraichy

French pianist Simon Ghraichy, of Lebanese and Mexican descent, chose Paris as his adopted city after a cosmopolitan childhood. A student of Michel Béroff, Daria Hovora, and Hortense Cartier-Bresson at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP), he continued his training with Tuija Hakkila at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. His virtuosity, strong opinions, and musical chameleonism enabled him to quickly develop an international career and perform on five continents.

As a result, he has performed in prestigious venues such as the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the philharmonic halls of Paris, Berlin, and Saint Petersburg, the Royal Opera of Versailles, the Gran Teatro Nacional in Lima, the Teatro Mayor in Bogota, the Istanbul Opera, as well as various venues in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia, Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Brazil, Lebanon, Egypt, Australia…

He is a regular guest at numerous festivals such as the Besançon Festival, the Bard Music Festival in New York, the Baalbeck International Festival (Lebanon), the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Violon sur le Sable in Royan, Les Nuits du Château de la Moutte, the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Musicalta (Alsace), the Biarritz Piano Festival, the Killington Music Festival (USA), and Ciudad de las Ideas (Mexico). He also participates in unique projects such as La Nuit Blanche organized by the Institut de France and choreographed recitals with prima ballerinas Marie-Agnès Gillot (La Seine Musicale), Dorothée Gilbert (Toulouse Festival), and Elisa Carillo (Berliner Staatsballet).

Passionate about contemporary music, he collaborates extensively with today’s composers, contributing to the creation of numerous works. He is notably the dedicatee of a concerto for piano and orchestra, “Fractalis,” by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, which he premiered with the Orchestre National de Bretagne. He is also the dedicatee of a sonata for augmented piano and live computer by Italian composer Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, which he premiered in November 2023 at the Auditorium Santa Cecilia in Rome.

While his early recordings focused mainly on Romantic composers (Liszt and Schumann), his exclusive collaboration with the Deutsche Grammophon label has resulted in two albums, “HERITAGES” and “33,” which reflect his multiple influences through works by Villa-Lobos, Lecuona, Gottschalk, Marquez, de Falla, Albeniz, Granados, and others.

Simon Ghraichy is a Steinway Artist.