Dan Grigore

Dan Grigore (born August 6th, 1943) is a great Romanian classical pianist and composer.

Dan Grigore was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1943. He was first a pupil of Mihail Jora and then of Florica Musicescu, who had both been teachers to Dinu Lipatti. He also studied in Saint Petersburg with Tatiana Kravcenko and in Vienna with Richard Hauser. He made his debut playing Enescu's Burlesque, Choral and Carillon Nocturne in first world audition and ever since the artist has been constantly including Enescu's music in his programs, all over the world.


Grigore is winner of the George Enescu National Music Competition (1960), laureate of George Enescu International Music Competition (1961, 1967) and Montreal International Piano Contest (1968). After 1966 his reputation is spread due to enthusiastic articles written by Cella Delavrancea. Together with Valentin Gheorghiu, Dan Grigore is one of the leading Romanian pianists of the second half of the twentieth century.

Dan Grigore was professor at the Music University in Bucharest between 1967-1979 and 1990-2001 - this time at the student's request. His activity for promoting young musicians is well-known and many of his former students have now successful international careers. He has given master-classes and held conferences in Great Britain, Japan, Italy, he is a member of international juries and frequently invited to prestigious international festivals. His career in Romania and abroad was severely restricted because of his steady opposition to the Ceauşescu regime. However, his reputation continued growing and he had many prestigious invitations being enthusiastically received by the audience. He has a growing discography and also a rich, steady publishing activity - essays, chronicles, interviews in cultural journals as well as Radio and TV talk- shows. He has an extremely wide repertoire, covering the whole range of styles and two constants in his entire artistic life are well-known: the high exigence towards himself and the careful choosing of the invitations to perform that he accepts. Surrounded by a mysterious aura, abandoning himself completely when he plays, he has been praised as belonging to the highest elite of pianists.


In February 1999 he was decorated by the French Government with the Order "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" and in 2000, by the Romanian State, with The Great Cross of the Order "Devoted Service". Since July 2000, the Romanian Government has appointed him as a member of the National Council of the Audiovisual.