SANDRINE ERDELY-SAYO, pianist, composer, and artistic director of Piano on the Rocks International Festival began piano studies at the age 4 and has won numerous prizes across a career that began in Perpignan, France. She continued her musical studies with Denyse Rivière in Paris and with Christian Manen at the Paris Superior Conservatory where she received first prize for specialization in music theory. There, she pursued special studies in harmony, counterpoint, and fugue. At 14 she wrote Three Pieces for Chamber Orchestra that were played at the Châtelet Theater in Paris. She became the youngest recipient of the French Minister of Culture Prize at the age of 13, and four years later won first prize at the Scène Française International Piano Competition in Paris. She was also a prize winner at the Ibla International Competition in Italy. In 1990 she came to Philadelphia to study with Susan Starr at the University of the Arts, receiving a master’s degree in piano and composition.

Her Chicago debut took place at Preston Bradley Hall for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert in 1999, and in 2014 she made her Carnegie Hall debut. She has played the major repertoire by Poulenc, Messiaen and Bartók, performing as a soloist, in chamber music, and with orchestras in Italy, France, Spain, South America, the United States, and for radio and television in various countries. She was described by Gary Graffman as “one of the finest pianists with exceptional quality who brings a fresh style which is clearly European in approach.”

An active composer and recording artist, Erdely-Sayo has recorded the complete piano music of Primitivo Lazaro for Randolfo Records, as well as music by Poulenc, Liszt, Thalberg, Scriabin, Debussy, Christian Manen, and Piazolla. She made the first recording of Poulenc’s early Trois Pastorales (discovered by Dr.Carl Schmidt), which she played at Towson University in 1995. As a composer, she has written a number of works including Platero y Yo for piano and narrator and the Hymn to Sedona that was nominated for the American Song-Writing Award. She is also a member of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry and of the Mega Society. From Bach to Liszt, from Fauré to Yiddish and Contemporary music, Erdely-Sayo is an eclectic pianist who handles a range of styles and emotions with the greatest of ease. She has been described as “electrifying” by Philadelphia Inquirer and as “a pianist with idealism, passion and lyricism” by La Prensa, Spain.

In 2023 Erdely-Sayo established the Anna-Maria Moggio International Piano and Voice Competition.

http://www.erdelysayo.com/