Classical pianist Dame Imogen Cooper, DBE – born in North London, England on August 28, 1949 - is an artist drawn to nuance, clarity, and emotional truth. Whether interpreting existing material or shaping ideas of her own, she approaches creativity as an act of listening first, expression second. At the heart of Imogen Cooper’s work is restraint. She favors precision over excess, allowing small gestures to carry weight and silence to do its share of the work. She grew up in a musical household, and her musical talents encouraged her parents to send her to Paris, France at the age of 12, where she studied for the next six years at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM) with Jacques Février, Yvonne Lefébure and Germaine Mounier. After being honored with the esteemed Premier Prix de Piano award from CNSM, she ended up continuing her studies in Vienna, Austria. In her early days, she was mentored and taught by Arthur Rubinstein, Clifford Curzon, Alfred Brendel, and others. Over the course of her career, she was won many awards and honors including The London Mozart Players' Mozart Memorial Prize (1969), the New Year Honours, CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to music (2007), the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award (2008), The Queen's Medal for Music (2019), and others. She was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to music. Her catalog includes the albums Schubert / Mozart (1977), Mozart: The Piano Concertos (1977), Après un Rêve (2002), Wigmore Hall Live: Beethoven, Mozart, Ravel (2007), Mozart: Piano Concertos 22 and 18 (2009), Works by Clara and Robert Schumann (2015), and Beethoven: The Last Three Sonatas (2026).
