Simon Ghraichy

Simon Ghraichy is a 29-year-old Lebanese-Mexican pianist who has lived and studied in Europe. After being the student of Hortense Cartier-Bresson in the Boulogne Conservatory, he was admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP) in 2006 to study with Professor Michel Beroff and Daria Hovora. Moreover, after attending a masterclass with Tuija Hakkila, he decided to follow her and study simultaneously in the Sibelius Academy of Helsinki in Finland. In 2010 he graduated from the Paris Conservatory and received a Masters degree with “honorific mention”. Simon Ghraichy has been performing recitals, chamber music concerts and as a soloist with orchestrafor many years now.
His career took a jumpstart in 2010 with the publication of a critique of Robert Hughes, a cultural journalist writing for the Wall Street Journal, who has particularly appreciated Simon Ghraichy’s interpretation of the Réminiscences de Don Juan of Franz Liszt. He has performed recitals all over the world. Therefore, one could have heard him in France in the Musée d’Orsay, in the Salle Cortot and Salle Marshall in Paris and at different summer festivals. In Europe he has performed in the Vredenburg Hall (The Netherlands), the Temppeliaukiokirkko (Finland), the Crossing Keyboards Festival (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and the EXIT Festival (Serbia). He also performs oversees, in Mexico (Sala Felipe Villanueva in Toluca, Centro Cultural Mexiquense Bicentenario in Mexico City, Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara, Auditorium San Pedro in Monterrey), Brazil (Sala Cecilia Meireles in Rio de Janero), Australia (Steinway Foundation and the Roseville Music Club in Sydney, the Burnie Arts Center), Lebanon (Saint-Joseph Church and the Assembly Hall) and South Africa (UniSA Festival in Pretoria). Thus, he has performed over the five continents. As a soloist, Simon Ghraichy is regularly invited to perform with various orchestras: State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Cuban National Symphonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica do Brasil, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, State of Almaty Symphony Orchestra, Guadalajara Juvenile Symphony Orchestra, Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra, Sessession Orchestra.
In 2015 he made his debut at the International Lyrical Festival of Aix-en- Provence in France, the Baalbeck International Music Festival in Lebanon and the Bard Music Festival in New York. His recital program “Liszt & the Americas” was spotted by the American organization and producer New York Concert Artists. They invited Simon Ghraichy to perform a solo recital in Carnegie Hall in New York City, Kennedy Center in Washington DC and in the Philharmonie Berlin.
His piano repertoire is very varied: while he’s attracted to main classical and romantic European repertoire (his first CD recording is dedicated to Liszt transcriptions and Opera paraphrases), Simon Ghraichy loved discovering lesser-known repertory like works by Latin American composers (Villa- Lobos, Ponce, Gottschalk, Guarnieri). From his Finnish years, he still remembers the introspective piano pages by Sibelius. His residency at the Steinway Foundation of Sydney offered him the occasion to discover Australian and Anglo-Saxon contemporary composers.
Simon Ghraichy has won numerous prizes and international distinctions, particularly in the BNDES (Banco do Brasil) International Piano Competition, the Manuel M. Ponce International Piano Competition in Mexico City and the Torneo Internazionale di Musica in Rome. He is a laureate of the Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation with whom he collaborates yearly in Senlis (France) and different partner festivals.
He is also supported by Sponsors (AXA insurances) and foundations (Luc Walter Foundation).