Jean-Pierre Rampal

Jean -Pierre Louis Rampal ( born January 7, 1922 in Marseille, † 20 May 2000, Paris) was a French flautist and high school teachers. He is considered one of the greatest flutists of the 20th century.

Life and work

Rampal's father, Joseph Rampal, was a professional flutist in Marseille. Jean -Pierre Rampal learned at a young age to play the flute at the Conservatory of Marseille ( where his father taught ) and worked there at the age of 15 years in a professional orchestra. He then began but initially at the request of parents to study medicine. He later moved to the Conservatoire de Paris, where he made his degree in 1944. In the postwar years, he established chamber music ensembles, particularly the " Quintette à Vent Français " (1946) and the "Ensemble Baroque de Paris" ( 1952), with the pianist and harpsichordist Robert Veyron - Lacroix, he worked from 1948 Sololiterar for flute and accompanying instrument. He joined increasingly nationally and internationally as a soloist in appearance. In 1955 he became principal flutist at the Opéra de Paris, 1958 a professor at the Académie Internationale d' he co-founded Été in Nice, and 1968 Rampal received a professorship at the Paris Conservatoire. Also an honorary doctorate from the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw was given him. In 1978 he was awarded the Léonie Sonning Music Prize.

Rampal is one of the major flutists of the 20th century and contributed significantly to the acceptance of the flute as a solo instrument in the international concert circuit at. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was always a soloist in performances of gambling under Charles Ristenpart Chamber Orchestra of the Saarland Radio, on the concert stage, in the recording studio, on the radio and on television. He was instrumental in part to the rediscovery of baroque and early classical music for his instrument, on the other hand wrote numerous contemporary composer works for him, including Jean Françaix, André Jolivet, Jindrich Feld, Henri Tomasi and Francis Poulenc (whose flute sonata he premiered ). 1981 had Rampal at the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Halil with, and the early 1990s, he played the solo part in the premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki's Flute Concerto. He repeatedly occurred together with the violinist Isaac Stern and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, but also undertook excursions into jazz, including together with pianist Claude Bolling, and into the world music ( with the Japanese shakuhachi flute player Hozan Yamamoto ).

Especially to Rampal tried to explore the well-known and rediscovered flute repertoire of the 18th century and published in new editions.

Rampal died at the age of 78 years and was buried in the Cimetière de Montparnasse, Paris. In his honor, is presented annually in Paris Concours de flute Jean -Pierre Rampal discharged.

Others

In January 1981, Rampal was the guest star in an episode of the Muppet Show by Jim Henson.