Biography (read more)
Jean Doyen was born in Paris on 8 March 1907. His first teacher was Sophie Chéné; from 1919 he studied with Louis Diémer and with Marguerite Long, and he graduated from the Conservatoire de Paris as a pianist in 1922. He went on to study counterpoint with Georges Caussade and composition with Paul Vidal and Henri Büsser.
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He made his solo debut in 1924 with the Concerts Colonne, and took part in Jacques Ibert’s ballet Les Rencontres at the Opéra Garnier. From 1926 he worked at Radiodiffusion Française.
In 1941 he became professor of piano at the Conservatoire de Paris, succeeding Marguerite Long, and held the chair until 1977. He also composed, leaving a Requiem, a piano concerto, a suite in B and Marine for string quartet and female vocal quartet. He died in Paris on 21 April 1982, aged 75.
Doyen is best known for his interpretations of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French music, and particularly for works by Gabriel Pierné, Reynaldo Hahn, Vincent d’Indy, Maurice Ravel and Gabriel Fauré. He also recorded Chopin’s waltzes, and gave the first performance of the Variations sur un thème de Don Juan. His recordings appeared on Philips, Fontana and Erato across a span from 1941 to 1972.
His largest influence, however, was exerted from the Conservatoire chair he held for thirty-six years. Taking over from Marguerite Long, he taught İdil Biret, Philippe Entremont, Roger Boutry, Marie-Thérèse Fourneau, Claude Kahn, André Krust, Arthur Moreira Lima, Bernard Job, Dominique Merlet and Chantal Riou, among others. Through that succession a considerable part of the French piano playing of the second half of the twentieth century passes through his classroom, which is why his name recurs in the training of pianists better known than he is.
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