Michel Béroff was born in 1950 in Épinal, France, of partly Bulgarian descent, and studied at the Nancy Conservatory before entering the Paris Conservatoire under Pierre Sancan, taking first prize in 1966. He made his Paris debut in 1967 and the same year won first prize in the Messiaen piano competition in Royan, launching a career as both recitalist and orchestral soloist. He is particularly known as an interpreter of Messiaen, Debussy, Prokofiev, and Bartók.

Béroff became one of France’s leading pianists of his generation, closely associated with the music of Olivier Messiaen and admired for his recordings of the French and Russian repertoire. He has also worked as a conductor and educator, and his extensive Erato/EMI discography remains a reference point for 20th-century piano repertoire.