Thomas Prat started playing the piano at the age of six but it was his discovery of Chopin’s works a few years later that revealed his passion for music. He studied with Jean Marie Cottet at the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris, and has studied with Eric Vidonne pupil of Alicia de Larrocha at École Normale de Musique de Paris. He also benefited from precious advice during his pianistic journey with Anne Quéffelec and Eugen Indjic. Moreover, his appetite for science led him to become an engineer and specialize in applied mathematics at École Centrale de Paris.
He has performed in France at Salle Cortot, at Reid Hall, at Radio France studio 104, at the Festival de Louviers, at the Festival “Les Amateurs Virtuoses!”, at the “Flâneries Musicales de Reims” as well as at the “Nohant Festival Chopin”. He has also performed abroad, at Gasteig in Munich, at Lazienki Park in Warsaw, at the church in Brochów (where Chopin was baptized), in Shanghai and Milan. In 2018 he won First Prize at the Fourth International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Amateur Pianists in Warsaw organized by the Fryderyk Chopin Society. Amateur competition participants do not work as concert pianists or piano teachers to earn money. They play the piano for the sheer love of music, independently of their professional careers. Present-day amateurs take us back to the time of Chopin (1810–1849), his pupils and his art. © Dux Records