Pianist. Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1962, Emile Naoumoff started playing the piano at the age of five. One year later he composed his first pieces. At the age of eight, his encounter with Nadia Boulanger was decisive: he became her last pupil and worked with her until her death in 1979.
During this enriching learning period, Nadia Boulanger gave him the opportunity to work with Clifford Curzon, Igor Markevitch, Robert and Gaby Casadesus, Nikita Magaloff, Jean Francaix, Leonard Bernstein and Yehudi Menuhin. It was actually Lord Yehudi Menuhin who conducted the premiere of his Concerto for Piano with Naoumoff 'aged only ten' at the piano. In parallel, Emile Naoumoff studied at the Conservatory of Paris with Leila Gousseau, Pierre Sancan and Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux, as well as at the École Normale de Musique in Paris, with Pierre Dervaux.
After Nadia Boulanger's death, Emile Naoumoff took charge of some of her classes during the summer period at the Conservatoire d'Art Américain in Fontainebleau, an institution of which she had been a cofounder in 1921. He then had a career both as a composer (published by Schott/Mainz/Germany) and pianist, while he devoted some of his time to teaching at the Conservatory of Paris. Amongst the most intense moments of his career, it is worth noting his interpretation of the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by Grieg with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, as well as his interpretation of his own version of Mussorgsky's 'Pictures at an Exhibition', with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C. under the baton of Mstislav Rostropovitch.
When Nadia Boulanger decided to pass the baton to Emile Naoumoff, he felt the need to share her teachings with the next generation. In 1996 he founded his own Summer Academy at the Chateâu de Rangiport in Gargenville,France.
Emile Naoumoff is a piano lecturer at the Indiana University of Bloomington, where he presently lives.
'I on't want to leave without saying goodbye. I still have so many things to tell you, which you already know. And I don't tell you in order to receive your gratitude, as I know you are aware of all I have done for you. But, please, don't ever forget that you have given me much more than I have. With my kindest affection, Nadia Boulanger.' (Extract of Nadia Boulanger's last letter to Emile Naoumoff, two months before her death in 1979).