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The French pianist, conductor and academic teacher, Jean-Bernard Pommier, began playing the piano at the age of 4 and gave his first public concert at the age of 7. He studied piano with Yves Nat and Pierre Sancan and conducting with Eugene Bigot at the Paris Conservatoire. Later, he also worked with Eugene Istomin in New York. In 1960, he received first prize in the Young Musicians International Competition in Berlin and the following year he was awarded the "Prix de la Guilde des Artistes Solistes Francais".
In 1962, aged 17, Jean-Bernard Pommier was the finalist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, where he was awarded First Honorable Mention by the jury presided over by Emil Gilels. Since that triumph, he has appeared with such eminent conductors as Herbert von Karajan, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, Kurt Sanderling, Leonard Slatkin, Edo de Waart, Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim under whose direction he performed the complete series of L.v. Beethoven concertos with the Orchestre de Paris. He is also regularly invited to the world' s most prestigious festivals and his recital and concerto appearances have included all major centers such as London, Vienna, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Amsterdam, Paris, Moscow, Chicago and Israel.
Jean-Bernard Pommier is enjoying an increasingly active career as a conductor working with major orchestras in Europe and America. His most recent conducting engagements include the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI (Turin), Tonhalle Zürich, Warsaw Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Symphony Orchestra, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Belgium National Orchestra and Salzburg Mozarteum. He also frequently takes up the dual role of pianist and conductor with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Northern Sinfonia of England, Sinfonia Varsovia, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, English chamber Orchestra or Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
His chamber music partners have included Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Leonard Rose, Alexander Schneider, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Paul Tortelier, Maurice Bourgue and the Guarneri and Vermeer Quartets. He was Artistic Director of the Northern Sinfonia in England (1996-1999) and Principal conductor of the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino in Italy. He has given master-classes in Chicago, London, Lausanne and Melbourne.
Jean-Bernard Pommier was married to the Russian violinist Olga Martinova, with whom he often performed. He died in Boujan-sur-Libron on April 23, 2026, at the age of 81, after a long illness. |
