French pianist Thibaut Surugue (°1986) possesses a demanding and eclectic repertoire, with many contemporary, modern and lesser known works alongside masterworks from the classical and romantic eras. He has made solo and ensemble recordings for German radio stations WDR and Deutschlandfunk and his studio recordings include piano works by Debussy, Bartók, Brahms, Haydn, Mozart, Fauré and more recently Georg Kröll and Francisco C. Goldschmidt.

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In 2021, he received the Förderpreis (sponsorship award) from the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. Previous successes include winning the City of Limoges Prize and prizes at the Île de France, Brest, Teresa Llacuna and CFRPM International Piano Competitions.

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A member of contemporary chamber music ensemble hand werk, his extensive activity in the field of new music has also led him to work with 2e2m (Paris), l’Ensemble Modern, Broken Frames Syndicate (Frankfurt), MusikFabrik, Kollektiv3:6Koeln, Kommas (Cologne), and with artists such as Brigitta Muntendorf, Rebecca Saunders, Stefan Asbury, George Benjamin, Tom Coult, Heinz Holliger, Johannes Kalitzke, Enno Poppe and Peter Rundel. 

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He has performed at the Ruhr Piano Festival, ACHT BRÜCKEN | Musik für Köln, the Festival d'Automne à Paris, the Daegu Contemporary Music Festival (Korea) and in prestigious venues such as the Grand Palais in Paris, the philharmonic concert halls of Paris, Cologne and Essen, Flagey in Brussels and the Bach Society Houston. He has appeared as a soloist with the Symphony Orchestras of the Conservatories of Boulogne-Billancourt and Pilsen, the Contemporary Music Ensemble of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Musique Royale des Guides (Belgium).

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Thibaut completed his bachelor's degree in piano performance in Paris with Hortense Cartier-Bresson and simultaneously obtained a bachelor's degree in musicology at the Sorbonne University. After having earned his master’s degree and "Concertmusicus" with great distinction at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel in the studio of Jan Michiels, he graduated with highest honours from the Master of New Piano Music from the class of Prof. Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Cologne (Germany). He was also a scholarship holder of the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt, where he was mentored by the ensemble's musicians, in particular the pianists Hermann Kretzschmar and Ueli Wiget.

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He has also had the privilege of refining his interpretation with other internationally renowned pianists, including Aldo Ciccolini, Éric Heidsieck, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, Abdel Rahman El Bacha, Alexander Lonquich, Markus Tomas, Henri Barda, Emile Naoumoff, Ventsislav Yankoff and Jean-Paul Sevilla.

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Thibaut lives in Cologne and, alongside his playing career, teaches at the Rheinische Musikschule Köln and contemporary music for piano at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen.

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