Hailed by the Classica Magazine as a “pianist of magnetic presence”, Ingmar Lazar performs in the world’s leading concert halls and festivals, and won critical acclaim for his CD recordings. Prizewinner of international competitions, he is the recipient of the Tabor Foundation Piano Award at the Verbier Festival (2013). Lazar serves as artistic director of the Festival du Bruit qui Pense, and of the Escapades Pianistiques, two international festivals located in France.
“Among the teachers who influenced me the most, there is Valery Sigalevitch who built me up artistically, and Alexis Golovin who developed in me a way of thinking. Other major influences include Dmitri Bashkirov, Malcolm Bilson, Fou Ts’ong, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Roustem Saitkoulov, and Elisso Virsaladze.
Having been taught by different professors, I know that there are so many different ways in approaching music, and that there are always multiple answers to one question. This is something that I always think of when I am teaching myself, as I believe a right solution can be different regarding each student. To be able to stimulate a young musician and open him to all the richness of the world of music is in my opinion one of the greatest achievements one can have.
As I look back, it is always musical accomplishments which left the strongest impact upon me. For example, when at the age of eleven I played for the first time Chopin’s 3 rd Ballade, and one year later Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. Recently it was when I was sharing the stage with pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier in a four-hand Schubert programme.
Naturally there are many pianists that I admire. It is difficult to say just a few names, but among them there is Alfred Cortot, Josef Hofmann, Vladimir Horowitz, Josef Lhevinne, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Artur Schnabel.
And if there were three recordings that I would take on a desert island, it would include Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting Beethoven’s Symphonies, Gustav Leonhardt playing Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier… but impossible to make a third choice without regretting a fourth one!”