Jean-Rodolphe Kars was born on March 15, 1947, in Calcutta, India. His family fled Austria after the Anschluss in 1938 and settled in France in 1948. Kars began his musical education at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1958 to 1964, studying with Julius Katchen and later with Jean Fassina from 1974 onward. He participated in the second Leeds International Piano Competition in 1966, receiving the fourth prize. In 1968, he won the first prize at the Olivier Messiaen Piano Competition. Kars released several albums, including Delius: Concerto for Piano in C minor (1970) and Debussy: The Preludes (1971). In 1981, he ended his concert career to pursue theological studies and was ordained as a priest in 1986.
