Baptiste Trotignon

Baptiste Trotignon (born in 1974) began playing the piano at the age of six. He discovered and taught himself jazz and improvisation as a teenager. In 1994 he played both the piano and a role in Alain Corneau’s movie “Le Nouveau Monde”, and one year later he decided to move to Paris.

In 1998, he formed his two trio albums “Fluide” and “Sightseeing” at the age of 26. This brought him to people’s attention as one of the most spectacular, complete and charming members of a new generation of pianists. He won many awards - Django d’Or, Prix Django Reinhardt de l’Acadé- mie du Jazz, Best French Newcomer at the 2003 Victoires du Jazz - as well as winning the Grand Prix at the 2002 Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition. Baptiste followed this up with two solo piano albums (“Solo” and “Solo II”) in 2003, which both received major public and critical acclaim, and he began to perform at many major French and international venues: Salle Pleyel, Marciac, Montréal, Vienne, Nice, Montreux, Toronto, La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, etc.

Over the years that followed he developed a number of eclectic encounters, performing alongside top-quality improvisers like Tom Harrell and Brad Mehldau, and he was also artistic director for tribute evenings to Edith Piaf and Claude Nougaro at Montreux Jazz Festival, and composed film music for Claude Goretta’s “Sartre.” 

Baptiste’s first “American” album, “Share”, was recorded in New York and came out in early 2009, with masters of jazz like Tom Harrell or Mark Turner as guests. The album was a hit and was followed by a highly charged live album recorded in London (“Suite...” 2010).

In November 2011 he was awarded the Sacem’s Grand Prix.

In 2012, as well as playing over 80 concerts in Europe and Asia, Baptiste released a stunningly bold album in the autumn called “Song Song Song”, on which he celebrated his love of the vocalist’s art and invited a prestigious group of artists including Melody Gardot to take part in his project. At the same time was created his piano concerto “Different Spaces”, his major non-improvised orchestral piece, performed by Nicholas Angelich. It received an enthusiastic welcome and Baptiste was named Composer of the Year at the 2014 Victoires de la Musique Classique.

After recording an album of acoustic ballads with saxophonist Mark Turner (“Dusk is a Quiet Place” 2013), Le Monde has described as “a lesson, a model, perfection from A to Z” has now returned to the art of the trio with “Hit,” for which he has teamed up with American groove master Jeff Ballard.

In 2016, he released a gorgeous original project mixing jazz and classical music on Kurt Weill with American mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey (“Thousands of miles”, acclaimed by “New-York Times”), he signed with the major label company Sony Music, releasing two co-leaded albums showing his love for South-American musical traditions: “Chimichurri” with Argentinian percussionist Minino Garay and “Ancestral Memories” with Afro-Cuban saxophonist Yosvany Terry.

In 2018, he became a “Steinway Artist” and received the prestigious Echo Jazz award in Germany as Best Instrumentalist-Keyboards category, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France creates his symphonic piece “Hiatus et turbulences”. At the end of the year, he also created his second piece for piano and orchestra “L’air de rien”, commission from Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, concert where he also plays for the first time Mozart 1st Piano Concerto!

His new album “You’ve Changed” will be released in November 2019, featuring new songs played on solo piano and an incredible series of duets with guests like Joe Lovano, Avishai Cohen, Ibrahim Maalouf, and Camélia Jordana.