Francois Chouchan

French-American pianist François Chouchan has been highly praised for his beauty of sound, clarity of texture and sensitive interpretation. Since his early career, Chouchan considered himself as an “emissary of love: a neo-romantic melodist.”

Chouchan’s musical values are passed down from Franz Schubert. Francois is strongly spiritually connected to Schubert’s use of the music as a mirror and a means of therapy; expressing furtive joy, loneliness, pain and melancholy, Schubert’s scores evoke his hope, sadness, candor and disillusion. This spiritual connection is essential to Francois’s philosophy of music as a spiritual bonding experience between musicians and the audience. 

He believes playing music is a true act of love. Opening his heart and sharing his deep feelings and emotions is of the essence in his performances. Each note becomes a word and each melody a sentence. It is intense, sensual, and fusional (connecting people and performance). During the performance, François feels the specific attention from the audience. The audience sends him something beautiful and he send them something back. It is a spiritual conversation.

Chouchan has been awarded, by unanimous decision, the first prize in Piano and Chamber Music at the Paris Conservatoire. He has also achieved third prize from the prestigious Viotti International Piano Competition in Italy. His teachers include Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, Germaine Mounier, Jean Hubeau, Mstislav Rostropovich, Nikita Magaloff, Georgy Sebok and Magda Tagliaferro.

He is an active performer in Southern California and has performed at the LACMA, Schoenberg Hall, California State University’s Long Beach and Northridge the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, L’Ermitage Foundation, the Music Academy of Santa Barbara, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, the St Mary’s Church of New Orleans, the California Club of Los Angeles. He also performs regularly in France. 

Chouchan has created and collaborated for different art mediums, including a World Premiere of Schubert’s “Winterreise” in a dance setting, composing melodic soundtracks for French and Swiss films, and rediscovering and performing forgotten Romantic and Neo-Romantic scores.

In 2010, Chouchan founded “Le Salon de Musiques,” an intimate chamber music concert series at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. The unique intimate concept is inspired by Queen Marie-Antoinette's "Salon de Musique" in Versailles and Schubert’s “Schubertiaden” in Vienna. In 2021, Chouchan has relocated his concert series to San Diego, at the historic La Jolla Woman’s Club.

Chouchan is very health conscious and uses the gym as his daily physical and mental therapy.