A pianist, concert performer and teacher, Lydia Jardon obtained her Teaching Licence at the Ecole normale de musique de Paris with Germaine Mounier, then entered the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris in Raymond Trouard’s class for piano and Jean Hubeau’s class for chamber music. “In that renowned school, the piano and chamber music classes brought me the greatest musical bliss and human warmth. Thanks to Sylvaine Billier, I developed my sight-reading skills, and Pierre-Max Dubois taught me everything about the art of musical analysis.

"Above all, these two artists made me realize how important human relations are amid the harshness of musical teaching: generosity, selflessness and listening skills are the foundations of any technical progress and any artistic transmission between a teacher and a student."

After graduating from the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris and obtaining her Concert Licence by an unanimous vote at the École normale de musique de Paris, Lydia Jardon was recognized by the Cziffra Foundation and won the International Milosz Magin Contest. Lydia Jardon then chose to go towards the stage and the public. After playing in France, Germany, Austria, Uruguay, Brazil, Turkey, Colombia and in many Eastern European countries, she interpreted Beethoven’s Fifth Concerto in Japan at the Suntory Hall with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mrs Yuri Nakamura, Rachmaninow’s Third Concerto in Bratislava with the Slovak Radio Orchestra conducted by Jean-Paul Penin and the Rhapsody in Blue at the Geneva Victoria Hall with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Arthur Fagen.

In July 2001 she is chosen for the opening concert at the Newport Festival in the United States. Hailed by the public, she is invited again in 2002.

But Lydia Jardon does not only play for the public. She listens to pianists from the entire world when they have difficulties. For several years, she has been fascinated by the island of Ushant off the coast of Brittany and since 1998 has been organizing a Summer Academy there for professionals and advanced amateurs.

"It is a magical place; its savage beauty is conducive to meditation, work and asceticism. It is the ideal place to reunite advanced pianists who want to hone their skills for a week."

In 1998, she gave a fund-raising concert at Unesco for the André Malraux Centre of Sarajevo before traveling to Bosnia. Noticing how the best music teachers had deserted many cities, she invited two pianists to Ushant, a Serb and a Bosniak, and organised concerts with them in Brittany, thus showing that music is stronger than violence. “To me, artists are like bridges that can unite the most unlikely causes above the gulfs created by injustice.”.

This is truly a passionate artist, who does not shy away from an original and technically demanding repertoire. Her playing is precise, supple and profound. It is endowed with a very expressive sound range that allows her to play with intelligence and character very different works, always lending them a great musical and theatrical force.

The complete Etudes by Skriabin constitute her eighth recording. All her previous discs have been unanimously hailed by the critics.

In August 2001, she created a Festival that is both exotic and original and she has served as its Artistic Director ever since: Women Musicians Encounters Ushant, a place also known as the “Island of Women”.

At the end of 2001, she created the first record company for women: Ar Ré-Sé (meaning “those women there” in Breton). She has already produced the Psophos Quartet, singer Norah Amsellem, pianists Dana Ciocarlie and Elena Filonova, violonists Irina Muresanu and Mireille Jardon. The young Ardeo Quartet and music by the composer Florentine Mulsant will soon follow suit.