Paul-André Bempéchat

Artist-in-Residence, SCAS.
Artist-Scholar, Institut Culturel de Bretagne
Research Associate, Harvard University

Franco-Canadian pianist and musicologist Dr. Paul-André Bempéchat is Artist-Scholar at the Institut
Culturel de Bretagne and holds concurrent research and performance appointments at Harvard Uni-
versity. He is also Visiting Lecturer at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Renowned for
his interpretations of the First Viennese School, he is a self-styled product of The Juilliard School
and the Sorbonne. Bempéchat has performed across Europe and North America, guesting major
philharmonic orchestras and festivals, notably the Stockholm, Helsinki, Bucharest and Belgrade
philharmonics, and the Vienna, Holland, LaNaudière (Québec) and Husum (Schleswig-Holstein)
festivals.
 
Bempéchat wrote the first biography of the eclectic Breton impressionist composer, Jean Cras (1879-
1932) Jean Cras, Polymath of Music and Letters (Ashgate, 2009; 2nd ed., Peter Lang, 2022), which
established the necessity of research into Europe’s minority cultures. With his article “Mendelssohn’s
‘Reformation’ Symphony and the Culture of Assimilation” (Harvard, Center for European Studies, 2011)
he spearheaded the concept of ecumenism as reflected in composition. In 2016, his Festschrift Naturlauf
(Peter Lang), honoring the 90th birthday of Henry-Louis de La Grange, the world’s foremost scholar of
Gustav Mahler, further developed these themes.

For his contributions to French culture and ecumenical studies, Bempéchat was honored as Chevalier
de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Cultural Affairs in 2017. The same year, he
became Hederskapellist of Uppsala University, for his contributions to the university’s musical life. 

While at SCAS, Bempéchat will undertake research for a future interdisciplinary study of Beethoven’s
ecumenical evolution as reflected in the social history of each of the master’s 32 piano sonatas, which
he will be recording over the next decade.

This information is accurate as of the academic year 2022-23.