“The sound of a Bechstein is always something special for me. It has the warmth, the depth of tone and the brilliance that I love so much.”
– Kim Barbier
The French pianist Kim Barbier comes from a French-Vietnamese family from Paris and grew up in Africa and the South of France. After graduating from the Paris Conservatoire and her concert exams with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, she studied with Maria Curcio in London. Her other teachers include György Kurtag, Patrick Cohen, Odile Poisson, Theodore Paraskivesco, Leon Fleischer and Ferenc Rados. Kim Barbier stands out as a versatile artist who feels equally comfortable in piano concertos and chamber music. Among the orchestras she has played with in recent years are the Zagreb Radio Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Neues Kammerorchester Potsdam. As a soloist, Kim Barbier has performed in the world's great concert halls, such as the Philharmonie Berlin, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, the Beijing Concert Hall and the Palau de la Musica in Valencia. She has also been a guest at renowned international festivals such as the Festival International de Menton, the Thüringer Bachwochen, the Rolandseck Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Easter Festival in Salzburg and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Kim Barbier is an enthusiastic chamber musician and has already performed with musicians such as Sol Gabetta, Emmanuel Pahud, Antoine Tamestit, Guy Braunstein, David Geringas, Sharon Kam, Paul Meyer and the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin. For two years she has been a member of the Berlin Piano Quartet performing with musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic. Her second album with quartets by Mozart, Mahler and Schumann, released by RCA/Sony Music in 2018, was highly praised by the international press.
„What struck me was an unusual combination of poetry and a formidable technique.“
– Sir Simon Rattle on Kim Barbier
