A renowned concert pianist, Brigitte Engerer won three successive major prizes (Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris, Tchaikovsky in Moscow and Queen Elisabeth in Brussels) before embarking on a distinguished career under the direction of conductor Herbert von Karajan in 1979. The pianist, who specializes in the Romantic repertoire, has enjoyed numerous successes, including Rachmaninov's Oeuvres pour piano à quatre mains (1989), Chopin's Nocturnes (1992) and Schumann's Carnaval opus 9 (1996), which won a Grand Prix du disque. In the 2000s, she expanded her career with Un Requiem allemand (2004) and Via Crucis (2007) with Laurence Equilbey's Ensemble Accentus. Brigitte Engerer, wife of writer Yann Quéffelec and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, died on June 23, 2012 at the age of 59, and will be remembered as one of the great figures of French piano.
