LUIS ASCOT

"A great interpreter of my works" – Alberto Ginastera, Geneva, 1978
Honorary Professor at the Conservatory of Music in Geneva (Switzerland), he began studying piano at the age of five under the direction of Poldi Mildner in Buenos Aires, his home town. He then continued his studies with Guiomar Novaes, Magdalena Tagliaferro and Jacques Klein in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), where he lived for 8 years. In 1971, he moved to Geneva with a scholarship from the Swiss Government to work with Harry Datyner, and in 1973, he won the First Prize of Virtuosity and the Paderewski Award granted by the Conservatoire de Musique of Geneva.
His teachers were direct descendants of pianists from the Franz Liszt and Ferruccio Busoni School: Moritz Rosenthal, Theodor Szanto, Isidore Philipp and Edwin Fischer.
Ascot has been honored in numerous national and international piano competitions, his career has led to scenarios such as the Conservatoire Royale de Musique in Brussels, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Carnegie Hall and the Hunter College in New York, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and the Terrace Theater in Washington DC, the Assembly Hall at the United Nations in Geneva and the UNESCO in Paris, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, among many others. In 1995 he carried out an extensive concert tour in India and in 2007, in China.
In 1998, at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires he played the role of The Pianist in the opera "Fedora" by Umberto Giordano; the main performers were Mirella Freni, Plácido Domingo and Sherrill Milnes.
Privileged interpreter and personal friend of the Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera, Ascot has spread this composer’s music along his career, playing his piano works, and his 1st Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. In 2003, he made a series of concerts in numerous countries of Europe and America, in memoriam of the Argentine composer, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his death.
Ascot was chosen by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires to play the 1st Piano Concerto by Ginastera in the "Teatro Colon Centennial Gala" as well as at the Miami Festival, USA, as part of the tribute that the Festival dedicated to the Argentinean composer on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his death.
In addition to his intense activity as a pianist, Ascot acts as member of the jury in international piano competitions and offers Master-Classes in conservatories and universities in different countries.
He has recorded by the Swiss Labels Cascavelle, Phoenix Records and recently by EPSA MUSIC (Argentina). In 2011, the Argentinean Music Critics Association distinguished him with the Prize to Artistic Career.
Ascot is unanimously considered by international critics as a real asset amongst the pianists of his generation.