Richard Clayderman

Fact Sheet

Occupation	Pianist
Birthday	28 December 1953 (54)
Sign	Capricorn
Birthplace	Paris, France

Richard Clayderman (born 1953 in Paris, France) is a French pianist who has released numerous albums, including his renditions of some of the works of composers like Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin and Mozart. He is also known for his symphonical rendition of many modern songs including Yesterday, The Sound of Silence and Memory. Although many may say that he is a classical pianist, such information is debatable since Richard Clayderman predominantly records popular music rather than classical music. His career as a classical pianist is also limited at best. Richard Clayderman mainly plays contemporary love songs.

Born Philippe Pagès, to a piano teacher, Clayderman started studying to play piano at age six, and he was accepted at a Conservatory of Music at age 12. After finishing Conservatory he worked as an accompanist and session musician. His life changed dramatically in 1976, when he recorded a single "Ballade pour Adeline". The single became an instant success, selling 22 million copies in 38 countries. Since then, he has recorded over 1000 songs and has become one of the most successfull instrumental recording artists in the world, selling in excess of 70 million records worldwide. In the peak of his career he performed 200 concerts in 250 days.

He is often credited with pioneering the piano recordings of famous Hollywood soundtracks and pop music artists, such as ABBA.

Criticism

Although a popular and bestselling artist, Clayderman is fiercely criticised— especially by piano (either classical or popular, such as Jazz) lovers, critics, connoisseurs and artists for his limited technique and campy and watered-down performances (for both technical and commercial reasons) of acclaimed classical pieces. He is strongly regarded as a commercially, not artistically oriented artist.

Richard Clayderman has a very curious market niche on third world countries, a fact mainly attributed by critics for his commercially-orientated performance of local and very popular music (especially love songs), and cheap, well-distributed records. Despite this, many people claim that he is a virtuoso or a great pianist.

He is considered by many a symbol of Kitsch.

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