Thomas Enhco - Piano

BIOGRAPHY 2023/2024

Thomas Enhco, born in Paris in 1988, is a pianist and composer of jazz and classical music. He began his classical training on the violin and piano as a child and studied formally at the Centre Music Didier Lockwood (CMDL) and the Paris National Conservatory. Since then, he has achieved wide international recognition, recording for the Verve, Deutsche Grammophon and Sony Music and performing 100 concerts per year around the world.

Among the venues that have invited him, are Jazz Festivals of Tokyo, Montréal, Vienne, Mon-treux, Istanbul, North Sea, New York, Olympia Hall... and Classical venues such as Philharmonie de Paris, Bordeaux Opéra, Brussels Flagey, La Roque d'Anthéron Piano Festival, Shanghai Grand Theater, Salzburg Mozarteum, Théâtre du Châtelet, Beijing Concert Hall, Kyoto Concert Hall, and the Sapporo Kitara Hall.

His most recent releases are the albums A Modern Songbook – a live jazz recording with bassist Stéphane Kerecki (Sony Masterworks, 2023), Thirty – in solo piano and with sym-phoney orchestra in his own Piano Concerto and compositions (Sony Classical, 2019), Bach Mirror (Sony Classical, 2021) and Funambules (Deutsche Grammophon, 2016) – in duo with virtuoso marimbist Vassilena Serafimova, Feathers – in solo piano (Verve, 2015) and Fireflies – with his jazz trio (La-bel Bleu, 2012).

As a jazz pianist, Thomas Enhco performs mainly as a solo pianist, in trio (with double bass and drums), and various duets. In solo concerts, his unique combination of improvisations on jazz standards, pop songs and themes by great classical composers, as well as his own compositions are praised by audiences and critics all around the world. His last album A Modern Song-book encompasses 125 years of songs, from Carole King to Sting, Gabriel Fauré to James Blake, Serge Gainsbourg to London Grammar, and Nick Drake to Silvio Rodríguez.

As a classical pianist, he regularly plays concertos by Mozart (K.491 and K.467), Ravel (Concerto in G), Gershwin (Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue), as well as his own concertos (Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Double Concerto for Marimba, Piano and Orchestra, and Le Murmure des Oiseaux: Rhapsody for Violin, Piano and Chamber Orchestra). He has performed with the national symphony orchestras of Bordeaux, Kyoto, Sapporo, Pau, Avignon, Kanazawa Orchestra Ensemble, Orchestre de Picardie, Orchestre National de France, Ensemble Appassionato, Insu-la Orchestra and with conductors Junichi Hirokami, Mathieu Herzog, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Fayçal Karoui, Alondra de la Parra, Julien Masmondet, James Gaffigan, Pierre Du-moussaud, Laurence Equilbey, Samuel Jean, Benjamin Lévy, Johanna Malangré.

As a composer, he regularly receives commissions from orchestras, chamber music ensembles, choirs and soloists. He notably composed three symphonic works and various works for piano, choir, string quartet, wind and brass quintets (some of which were released on Sony, Naïve, Mirare and Klarthe). His two last film scores are for the movie Elle & Lui et le reste du monde by French director Emmanuelle Belohradsky (2024) and Un Mondo in Più by Italian director Luigi Pane (2021).

Among the prizes and awards Thomas Enhco has received are the SACEM Grand Prize for Jazz 2020, the Victoires du Jazz 2013, the 2nd Grand Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition 2017, the FIPA d'Or for Best Film Score 2012 (Les Cinq Parties du Monde by French director Gérard Mordillat), the Django d’Or “New Talent” award 2010 and the 3rd Grand Prize at Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition 2010.

He has performed and recorded alongside jazz, classical, pop, visual, dance and literature artists like Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Didier Lockwood, David Enhco, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Chris Potter, Yamandu Costa, Paquito d'Rivera, José James, Peter Erskine, Ibrahim Maalouf, Gilad Hekselman, Mike Stern, Dan Tepfer, Cyrille Aimée; Maria João Pires, Henri Demarquette, Khatia Buniatishvili, Emiliano Gonzalez-Toro, Sarah Nemtanu, Deborah Nemtanu, Alexis Cardenas, Renaud Capuçon, Lise de la Salle, Caroline Casadesus, Natalie Dessay, Michel Dalber-to, Laurent Naouri, Anne-Sofie Von Otter, Quatuor Ébène, Quatuor Arod, Quatuor Hanson, Quatuor Modigliani, Beatrice Rana, Thibaut Garcia, Radio France Choir, Spirito Choir; David Les-cot, Nicolas Mathieu, Aurélia Aurita, Marie-Claude Pietragalla, Tim Dup, Jane Birkin, and MC Solaar.

From 2013 to 2021, Thomas Enhco was supported in his projects by the BNP Paribas Foundation.

Status: December 2023