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The Canadian pianist and teacher, David Jalbert, began playing the piano at age 4 with the encouragement of his father. He obtained his Diplôme d'études supérieures I from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in 1997. In 1999, at 21, he graduated with M MUS from the Université de Montréal, where he studied with Marc Durand and received the Governor General's Gold Medal for academic excellence. He continued his studies at The Glenn Gould School with Durand, André Laplante, Leon Fleisher, and John Perry (Artist Diploma, 2001); and at The Juilliard School of Music in New York with Jerome Lowenthal (Artist Diploma, 2003). Other teachers have included Pauline Charron and Marilyn Engle. Jalbert won first prize at the Concours Clermont-Pépin in 1996 and the MSO Competition in 1997, and second prize at the CBC Competition for Young Performers in 1999. In 2000 he became the first Canadian to reach the finals in the Dublin International Piano Competition, where he was awarded 4th prize. Jalbert has received two awards from the Canada Council for the Arts: the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award in 2001 and the Virginia Parker Prize in 2007.
David Jalbert, with his spirited and communicative style, incomparable stage presence and refined ear, has made himself one of the flag-bearers of the new generation. Referred to as a "young master" by John Corigliano, Jalbert is considered one of Canada's best up-and-coming concert pianists. He performs regularly as a soloist and recitalist across North America and Europe. As a soloist he has performed with nearly every major orchestra in Canada, including the CBC Radio Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra (MSO), National Arts Centre Orchestra, Orchestre métropolitain, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Regina Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed internationally with the Bielefelder Philharmoniker and the National Symphony of Ireland. Jalbert performed as part of the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in 2003 and for the Women's Musical Club of Toronto in 2004. In 2007 he premiered Dinuk Wijeratne's Colour Study in Rupak Taal at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts as part of Music Toronto's recital series.
David Jalbert has frequently performed, recorded, and toured with cellist Denise Djokic. The two have appeared together at the Phillips Collection and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, and at New York's Bargemusic. In 2002 Djokic and Jalbert were the subject of Seven Days, Seven Nights (Paul Kimball, director), a documentary film that followed them through a week-long tour of rural British Columbia. Jalbert is also a member of the piano trio Triple Forte with violinist Jasper Wood and cellist Yegor Dyachkov. Other chamber music ollaborators have included Quatuor Alcan, Pentaèdre, French hornist Louis-Philippe Marsolais, violinists Rachel Barton Pine and Jonathan Crow, and pianists Anton Kuerti and Naida Cole.
David Jalbert’s first solo disc, a recording of American piano music by composers John Corigliano and Frederic Rzewski, won wide critical acclaim. It was followed in 2006 by a recording of Gabriel Fauré's Nocturnes, and in Jalbert and Djokic's critically acclaimed 2005 release, “Folklore”, garnered a Juno Award nomination for classical album of the year, and was named classical recording of the year at the 2006 East Coast Music Awards. Jalbert's 2008 recording of Dmitri Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues on ATMA label was nominated for classical album of the year at the 2009 Junos. The album also received an Opus Award for recording of the year in the modern and contemporary category in 2009. In 2009 Jalbert, along with Djokic, violinist Marc Djokic, and clarinetist Jean-François Normand, received an Opus Award from the Conseil québécois de la musique for concert of the year (regional).
In 2008 David Jalbert became a faculty member at the University of Ottawa's School of Music. |
