Jean Fassina
Jean Fassina (born 9 November 1936) is a French classical pianist born in Algiers.
A concertist, direct heir of the great Paderewski piano tradition, Fassina is a recognized teacher who counts a pleiad of French and foreign artists among his students.[livre 1]
Biography
Coming from a line of pianists, (his grandmother was a pianist and composer, his mother performed in concert and was his first teacher), he trained at a very young age at the Conservatoire de Paris.[livre 2] After winning his prizes there, Fassina felt the desire to go and study in Eastern European countries, where the results of the teaching given there worked wonders in international competitions: "When not one but twenty pianists dazzle you, there is something obvious about it".[livre 3]
He obtained a scholarship that allowed him to study in Poland. He completed his training as a pianist in Krakow, the high place of the Polish piano school, under the benevolent guidance of Henryk Sztompka,[1] himself a former student of Paderewski and worthy heir of an instrumental and stylistic tradition going back to Chopin and Liszt.[livre 1]
In the first lesson, Sztompka told him "You are a musician, but you have to do everything over again...". Thus began four years of intensive work which Fassina himself describes as "the most extraordinary of his life".[livre 4]
After a short and intense concert career from 1961 to 1975,[livre 1] he devoted himself to what he considered his true vocation: teaching the piano. In about ten years, he trained a good number of artists and teachers of all nationalities, to whom he passed on the knowledge he received in Poland.
After forty years of teaching, Jean Fassina published a book (Lettre à un jeune pianiste Fayard) in which he shares his pianistic knowledge and his pedagogical experience.
Pedagogy
Fassina teaches in many countries in Europe and Asia:[livre 1]
- Conservatoire de Strasbourg,
- Academies of Nice and Barèges (France),
- Académie de Haut Perfectionnement de Musique de Saluzzo (Italy),
- Conservatories of Sapporo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Okinawa (Japan),
- Central Conservatory of Music (China),
- Rencontres internationales d’Enghien,[2]
Pupils
More than a hundred internationally known musicians have been students of Fassina such as:
- Jacques Rouvier,
- Michel Béroff,
- Olivier Gardon
- Jean-Rodolphe Kars,
- Jacqueline Bourges-Mounoury
- Jean-Louis Haguenauer,[3]
- Beate Perrey,[4]
Master classes
Fassina is the permanent guest of prestigious master classes:[livre 1]
Jury of international competitions
He also sits on the jury of numerous international competitions:
- Concours international P.T.N.A (Japan 2003)
- Concours international Frédéric Chopin de Moscou (Russia 2004)
- Concours international de Musique de Porto (Portugal 2002 and 2004)
- Concours international de Musique du Maroc (March 2013)
- Piano Campus International Competition (Pontoise, France, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011)
Sources
- Lettre à un jeune pianiste - Jean Fassina - Foreword by Jacques Rouvier - Éditions Fayard - III 2000
- Page 13
- Pages 15-16
- Page 17
- Page 19
References
- Henryk Sztompka on data.bnf.fr
- "Rencontres Internationales d'Enghien (Belgium)". Archived from the original on 2013-11-26. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
- Jean-Louis Haguenauer
- Beate Perrey
- "Rencontre internationale de musique d'Enghien - IMUSE". Archived from the original on 2013-07-17. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
- Institut supérieur de musique et de Pédagogie - IMEP
Bibliography
- Lettre à un jeune pianiste - Jean Fassina - Foreword by Jacques Rouvier - Éditions Fayard - III 2000 ISBN 2-213-60592-0