Valère Burnon - Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel

Born on August 31, 1998, Valère Burnon is from Marche-en-Famenne (Belgium). He finished his bachelor’s degree in June 2018 at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège where he studied with Marie-Paule Cornia, Jean Schils, François Thiry and Étienne Rappe. He then joined the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in Wuppertal in October 2019, first as Erasmus student and then as regular student with Florence Millet. In 2021, he obtained his Master of Music with great distinction from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. In September 2021, Valère was admitted to the prestigious Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col maestro” in Imola (Italy), which allows him to improve his skills and aptitudes with professor and pianist Leonid Margarius. In April 2022, Valère was admitted to the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels and has ever since benefited from the precious artistic advice of Frank Braley, Avo Kouyoumdjian and Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden.

Thanks in particular to his prizes won at the prestigious 2019 Concours de Piano d’Épinal, 2021 Europäischer Klavierwettbewerb Bremen and 2022 Concours Long-Thibaud, the opportunities are increasing for Valère to express his talent on stage across Belgium, France, Germany and Italy (Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal, Kölner Philharmonie, Salle Cortot in Paris, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Studio 4 of Flagey in Brussels, Salle Philharmonique de Liège, etc.) He also had the opportunity to play with renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie or the Orchestre symphonique de Metz under the direction of Jacques Mercier.

In 2020, Valère released his first album in collaboration with the Belgian pianist and composer Luc Baiwir; this album is dedicated to Claude Debussy, Sergei Prokofiev and Sergei Protopopov, an unknown Russian composer whose preludes Opus 32 had never been recorded. Valère released a second album in 2021, “Neoteric”, in duet with clarinettist Andreas Hermanski from the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln; this CD is dedicated to French composers Francis Poulenc, Ernest Chausson and Claude Debussy, as well as Scandinavian composers Magnus Lindberg, Arvo Pärt and Rolf Martinsson.

At the age of six, Valère started music with the violin, before starting the piano at the age of seven with Émilie Chenoy. She quickly introduced him to Marie-Paule Cornia, who followed him for almost ten years, and more particularly within the framework of the Conservatoire de Huy and then at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège. Having still completed his academic violin cycle with Valérie Cantella at the Ciney Conservatory, Valère joined various orchestras as a violinist, including the Orchestre Terra Nova in Namur, under the direction of Étienne Rappe, or the Orchestre Symphonique des Étudiants de Louvain-la-Neuve (OSEL), under the direction of Philippe Gérard, whom he accompanied on tour in Italy in 2017 as well as in Croatia and Slovenia in 2022.

In addition, in 2017, Valère created the duo Ravello with flutist Élodie Lambert from the Conservatoire de Liège. Both performers were silver medallists at the Luxemburg UGDA competition and then played, among others, in the Salle Philharmonique de Liège and at the Royal Juillet Musical de Saint-Hubert. In June 2019, they also participated in the Festival International de Musique de Belfort (FIMU) in France. Furthermore, Valère performs regularly as a chamber musician, particularly in duo formations but also in larger ensembles such as quartets or quintets. Therefore, he was appointed in 2022 chamber music teacher at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège and has ever since assisted his former chamber music teacher Jean-Gabriel Raelet.

Valère distinguished himself in many renowned piano competitions, including:

# 1st prize of the 2013 Concours “Breughel” in Brussels;
# 1st prize of the 2014 Concours “Andrée Charlier” in Charleroi;
# 3rd prize ex-æquo of the 2015 Concours International de Piano de Brest in Chopin
category;
# 1st prize of the 2016 Concours de Piano de Liège;
# 3rd prize of the 2017 Concours International “Merci, Maestro!” in Brussels;
# 2nd prize of the 2018 Concours International “Triomphe de l’Art” in Brussels;
# 1st prize of the prestigious 2019 Concours International de Piano d’Épinal;
# 1st prize and prize for contemporary music of the prestigious 2021 Europäischer
Klavierwettbewerb;
# and Prix Rélévation of the prestigious 2022 Concours Long-Thibaud in Paris.

In addition to these competitions, Valère participates in numerous masterclasses in Belgium, France, Germany and Italy with renowned pianists, including Victor Chestopal, Stephen Kovacevich, Rena Shereshevskaya, Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Alexander Lonquich, Alexander Staier, Bernd Goetzke, Bertrand Chamayou, Nikolai Lugansky and Yury Martynov. He also regularly follows masterclasses with French pianist and conductor Jean-Bernard Pommier.

Valère benefits from a scholarship granted by Jean Praet Fund