Born in 1955 to a non-musical family, Michel Dalberto began playing on a toy piano at the age of 3 ½, made his first public appearance at 5 ½ and entered the Paris Conservatoire at 13 to study with Vlado Perlemuter. Today he is regarded as a direct heir of the great French Piano School founded by Alfred Cortot, who considered Perlemuter to be one of his favorite students. Dalberto’s career started after winning two of the most coveted international competitions: the Clara Haskil Prize in 1975 and 1st Prize of the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1978. Major festivals such as Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Schleswig-Holstein or Vienna Festwochen and prominent orchestras such as Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Czech Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Roma Santa-Cecilia, Tokyo NHK and Vienna Symphony have invited him with conductors including Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Erich Leinsdorf, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Masur and Daniele Gatti.
His vast repertoire is reflected by an impressive discography with over 45 Cds on Erato, Warner, RCA, Denon, La Dolce Volta and Aparté labels. Of note, he is the only living pianist who has recorded the complete piano music of Franz Schubert. He has also played and conducted all of the Mozart Concertos. He is currently recording for the label La Dolce Volta which released in the fall of 2019 a double CD featuring five of the most famous piano Sonatas by Beethoven. The album received widely acclaimed reviews, including the rare “Artist of the Year” award given by the magazine Classica. In May 2022 he released an all-Liszt CD (including the B-minor Sonata) recorded at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, which the daily paper « Le Monde » featured in a full-page interview. Respected as an outstanding chamber music partner, Michel Dalberto has shared the stage and collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned musicians, including Barbara Hendricks, Jessye Norman, Renaud Capuçon and Lynn Harrell.
Teaching is paramount for him – After being on the faculty of the Imola Accademia Pianistica (2006- 2009) and at the Paris Conservatory (2011-2022), he has been invited at the new Yehudi Menuhin School in Qingdao to teach Piano and Chamber Music. He is also Visiting Professor at the Weimar Hochschule and gives regular Masterclasses at the Rachmaninoff Conservatory in Paris. The French Government awarded him the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 1996. An expert in gastronomy and wine, he is also an avid skier, a certified scuba-diver and passionate fan of vintage cars and auto racing.