Pierre Gallon

BornMarch 27, 1986

Occupations

Pierre Gallon
Pierre Gallon at the Musique à la Source festival 2020
Born	(1986-03-27)March 27, 1986 Falaise, Normandy, France
Occupations	Harpsichordist organist fortepianist

Pierre Gallon, born on (1986-03-27)March 27, 1986 in Falaise (Normandy), is a French harpsichordist, organist, and fortepianist.

Brother of cellist François Gallon and son of lutenist Pascal Gallon, he grew up immersed in early music, leading him to start playing the harpsichord around the age of 9, at the Caen Conservatory, under Bibiane Lapointe and Thierry Maeder. Simultaneously, he also studied the violin. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatory in 2006 and graduated four years later from the harpsichord and basso continuo classes of Olivier Baumont and Blandine Rannou. According to his biography on his website, he considers his encounters with Blandine Verlet, Élisabeth Joyé, and Pierre Hantaï as key moments in his learning journey.^[1]

He has over thirty recordings to his name, notably with the Ensemble Pygmalion, where he is the principal harpsichordist, the Ensemble Correspondences, and Le Poème Harmonique. Until 2022, he recorded solo for the independent label L'Encelade.^[2]

His first recording, dedicated to Renaissance publisher Pierre Attaingnant, was highlighted by France Musique through its selection program Choix de France Musique.^[3] Since then, Pierre Gallon has been regularly invited as a soloist to La Roque d'Anthéron, the Saintes Festival, La Folle Journée de Nantes, the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, etc. His album dedicated to the musical legacy of lutenists in the harpsichord music of the Grand Siècle, titled Blancrocher, l'Offrande (L'Encelade, 2020), was acclaimed by critics; it notably received ffff from Télérama,^[4] the Diapason d’Or^[5] from the specialized magazine of the same name, and a Choc from the music magazine Classica.^[6]

Since 2017, he has also ventured into Classical repertoire as evidenced by his album Haydn, per il Cembalo solo with L'Encelade and, more recently, in duo with soprano Alice Foccroulle, an album of Lieder by Joseph Haydn, where he is found playing the fortepiano (Haydn, Deutsche Lieder, Passacaille, 2021).

He divides his concert activities between recitals, productions directed by Raphaël Pichon, and chamber music; he is regularly found alongside violist Lucile Boulanger, writer Pascal Quignard, soprano Alice Foccroulle, violinist Alice Julien-Laferrière, and harpsichordists Bertrand Cuiller, Yoann Moulin, or Freddy Eichelberger.

In 2024, he joined the record label Harmonia Mundi International.^[7]

Authority control databases
International	ISNI VIAF WorldCat
National	United States France BnF data
Other	IdRef

Recent discography

Solo

Chamber music, orchestra

Operas (DVD)

Notes and references

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