Wilhem Latchoumia – 2006

Born in Lyon, France, in 1974, Wilhem Latchoumia won unanimously his Médaille d’or at the CNR of Lyon and then, always unanimously, his first Prize at the CNSM with honours of the jury in 1999. He ended his studies with Géry Moutier’s improvement class and also has a musicology degree. He has been one of Claude Helffer students and followed masterclasses by Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Wilhem Latchoumia has done many recitals, concerti and Chamber music in France and abroad: Salle Cortot, Musée d’Orsay, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Musée Claude Debussy in Saint-Germain en Laye, in Menton, in Lyon, at the “Festival Estival et Académies” of Annecy, Festival “Musicales Internationales Guil-Durance”, Festival de l’Emperi in Salon de Provence, Festival Classik Peyruis in Haute-Provence, Festival of Besançon, Festival Why Note in Dijon, Festival de l’Orangerie in Sceaux, Festival International de Piano in La Roque d’Anthéron, Festival “Retour au Pays Natal” in Martinique, Gubbio Festival in Italiy, Young Euro Classic 2002 Festival in Berlin, Xeraciòn 2000+4 Festival in Spain, at New York Institute For Contemporary Performance of Mannes College, at the Festival Jeunes Talents of Metz, at the 2007 Beijing Modern Music Festival in China, at the  39th Festival Encuentros of Buenos Aires in Argentina, a tour in Lebanon, in Estonia, Belarus, Poland and recently in South America.

He played solo piano under Gilbert Amy, Peter Csaba and F. Pierre, Andrei Galanov with the Rostov State Philharmonic and recently under Jean Deroyer with the Orchestre National de Lille (French creation of the Concerto for piano by Unsuk Chin, Orléans, april 2007).
Wilhem Latchoumia worked with choregraphers P. Cohen (Festival Musica in Strasbourg, in Luxembourg) and S. Wisniewski (on tour in Lyon, Poland, Belarus, Spain).

His fondness for contemporary music brought him to work with composers like Pierre Boulez, Gilbert Amy, Michael Jarrell, Jonathan Harvey, Frédéric Pattar, Frédéric Kahn, Boris Clouteau, Karl Naegelen or J.M. Lopez-Lopez.
He also performed contemporary music with percussionists J. Geoffroy (Musique en scène in Lyon, Les Musiques à Marseille), S. Favre (Amphitheatre of the Opéra de Lyon), L. Mariusse (Embarcadère in Lyon, Festival Why Note in Dijon) and the singer and actress Marie Fraschina.

He is laureate of Hewlett-Packard Foundation “Musiciens de Demain” (2004) and of the 12th International competition of contemporary music for piano Xavier Montsalvage (Girona, Spain). He won many prizes at the 7th International piano competition of Orleans 2006 including First Prize Special Distinction “Blanche Selva” and a grant to make an album.

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