Caroline Haffner, piano

Princess Caroline Murat, Artistic Director Festival Friends Concert Salon Montgomery, Grand Hotel Park Gstaad - Wednesday 4 January 2012

Caroline is acclaimed by connoisseurs, critics and fellow musicians for the brilliant virtuosité, profound musicianship and dramatic intensity of her playing. She has been encouraged throughout her career by personalities such as Placido Domingo, Maxim Vengerov and Mstislav Rostropovitch, who spoke of the imagination, colour and poetry in her performance. The style of playing - eminently romantic and dramatic - which characterizes Caroline Haffner  allows her to be mentioned alongside the legendary pianists with whom she has studied. As a child prodigy she took lessons with Alfred Cortot and was deeply influenced by the limpidité, fluidity and spontaneous expression of his style. Later she studied with Samson Francois, Pierre Sancan, and with David Oistrakh's accompanist, the Russian teacher Lev Oborin in Moscow. All these varied and individualistic musicians strongly influenced her artistic understanding and development. Since her youth, the technical and musical skills of Caroline Haffner have brought her a string of prestigious awards. After a number of first prizes at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique (CNSM) in Paris, a Licence de Concert at the age of 14 years at
the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, recognition from Charles Munch and a 'virtuosité' at the Conservatoire de Génève, Caroline continued her studies in Vienna with Leonid Brumberg.

Caroline takes her stage name from her mother - descended from Sigmund Haffner, Mayor of Salzburg and friend of Mozart for whom he wrote the Haffner Serenade and Symphony of the same name. Technically and musically expert Caroline also has an interest in ancient music and discovered and rewrote with the "Biblioteca Vivaldiana" and Cini Foundation Venice, Cimarosa's "La Morte d'Abel" oratorio.