David Jalbert is a Canadian concert pianist and professor at the University of Ottawa. He is considered by the CBC one of Canada's top 15 classical pianists "this country has ever produced".[1]
| David Jalbert (pianist) | |
| Birth Date: | November 3, 1977 |
| Birth Place: | Rimouski (Quebec) |
| Genre: | classical music |
| Instrument: | Piano |
| Website: | https://davidjalbert.com/ |
| Occupation: | Pianist, professor of piano at University of Ottawa |
David Jalbert was born on November 3, 1977, in Rimouski, Quebec. He began playing the piano at the age of four with the encouragement of his father.[2] He entered the Conservatoire de musique de Rimouski at the age of nine[3] to study with Pauline Charron, who taught him piano for nearly 10 years.[4]
He obtained his bachelor's degree in 1997 from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec. With a scholarship from the Canadian Fund for Research (CFAR), he entered the Master's program in performance at the Université de Montréal where he studied with Marc Durand. He obtained the degree in 1999 and was awarded the Governor General's Gold Medal for his academic achievements.[5] He then completed an Artist Diploma at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto where he studied with several professors including Marc Durand, André Laplante, Leon Fleisher and John Perry. In 2001 he entered the Artist Diploma program at the Juilliard School under the guidance of Jerome Lowenthal.[6]
David Jalbert has also participated in several summer academies including Orford Musique (Marc Durand, André Laplante), Banff Centre for the Arts (John Perry, Gilbert Kalish), Oberlin at Casalmaggiore (Marilyn Engle) and Music Academy of the West (Jerome Lowenthal).[7]
David Jalbert placed first several times at the Canadian Music Competition during his youth (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996) but it was his 1st Prize at the 1997 OSM Competition[8] that launched his career, leading to several tours with, among others, the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada and Debut Atlantic. He had other successes in competitions (CBC Young Performers Competition 1999, Dublin International Competition 2000, Canada Council for the Arts Sylva Gelber Prize in 2001), but successive engagements followed rapidly in recitals, chamber music and with major orchestras, particularly in Canada (Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony of Ireland, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Bielefelder Philharmoniker, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, among others).[9]
In 2003, David Jalbert signed a recording contract with Endeavour in the United States. His first recording is devoted to the works of American composers John Corigliano and Frederic Rzewski, with whom he worked personally in preparation for the recording (Corigliano was also involved in the promotion of the recording). In 2006, he made his recording of the complete Nocturnes by Gabriel Fauré, which was later selected by the Tribune des critiques de disques of France-Culture as the modern recording of reference.
He regularly performs chamber music with his trio, Triple Forte, with the wind quintet Pentaèdre and horn player Louis-Philippe Marsolais (with whom he recorded for Oehms Classics in Munich), and with cellist Denise Djokic. The album Folklore, a collaboration with the latter, was a finalist in the 2005 Juno Awards. He also collaborates regularly with bassist Joel Quarrington, and has performed with artists such as Nicola Benedetti, Rachel Barton Pine and Jean-Philippe Collard.
In 2008 he signed with the ATMA Classique label and inaugurated this collaboration with a double album devoted to Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues opus 87, which was a worldwide critical success and earned him another Juno nomination, as well as the Opus Award for Record of the Year (modern/contemporary). His 2012 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations was another critical success, chosen as "Canadian Record of the Year" by Ludwig van Toronto. David Jalbert was nominated for two other Juno Awards: for the first album of Triple Forte in 2013 (Trios de Ravel, Chostakovitch et Ives) and for his album of Stravinsky and Prokofiev ballet transcriptions in 2018.[10] These two discs also won the Opus Awards. He has premiered works by Dinuk Wijeratne, Reiko Yamada and Kelly-Marie Murphy, and is currently preparing a three-disc recording of the complete Prokofiev Sonatas for ATMA Classique.
David Jalbert accepted a position as Professor of Piano at the University of Ottawa's School of Music[11] in 2008; he became Associate Professor in 2014 and then Full Professor in 2020. He also teaches at the Orford Music Academy[12] and has been invited to give lessons and masterclasses at school and festivals such as the Glenn Gould School, Pianofest in the Hamptons, Université de Montréal, Mount Royal Conservatory, UBC, and Juilliard, among others.