French pianist and conductor Jean-Pierre Marty is best known for his recordings of operetta. Born in Paris on October 12, 1932, he began his piano studies with Marcel Ciampi, Alfred Cortot and Julius Katchen, and gave his first solo concert in 1946, accompanying cellist Pierre Fournier. After studying with Nadia Boulanger at the Paris Conservatoire, he had to give up his career as a pianist following a muscular accident in 1953. From then on, Jean-Pierre Marty, who recorded a recital devoted to Chopin in 1958, turned to conducting, taking lessons in the United States with Robert Irving, musical director of the New York City Ballet. In 1963, he worked with the American Ballet Theatre, then returned to France where, the same year, he recorded Louis Ganne's Hans, le Joueur de Flûte, before premiering Kenton Coe's opera Sud in Marseille in 1965. he gained notoriety with his recordings of operettas and operas, notably Ganne: Les Saltimbanques (1968), Offenbach: La Belle Hélène (1970), Offenbach: La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein (1972), Rossini: Le Barbier de Séville with Mady Mesplé and Charles Burles (1975) or Auber: Manon Lescaut (1976). His career also includes invitations to conduct Rossini's Le Comte Ory, Debussy's Pélléas et Mélisande and Massenet's Manon at the Washington Opera and New York City Opera. Jean-Pierre Marty was also director of the lyric department at Radio-France, and in 1975 founded the Saison lyrique, a concert program, until his departure in 1980. During this period, he conducted, among other rediscoveries and premieres, Poulenc's La Voix humaine with Jeanne Rhodes and Le Dialogue des Carmélites with Régine Crespin and Felicity Lott. He resumed his career as a pianist, giving concerts at the Salle Gaveau and the École normale de musique de Paris, and writing specialized performance books. From 1987 to 1993, he directed the American Conservatory of Fontainebleau, formerly presided over by Robert Casadesus and Nadia Boulanger. On March 14, 2024, Jean-Pierre Marty died at the age of 91.
