Musical journey
Adrian Herpe, born in 2000 to a French father of Breton origin and a Ukrainian mother, began his musical studies in Western Ukraine at the arts school in the city of Uzhgorod. His teacher is Ludmila Butkovska. From an early age, he participates in regional piano competitions and wins several prizes. He also participates in concerts in Hungary and Romania. At the age of 14 he took part in the Chatou piano competition and unanimously obtained the 3rd medal. A year later he won 3rd prize in the “Crescendo Geneva” piano competition, where the final took place with an orchestra.
In 2015 he continued his studies in a professional establishment called musical college in Uzhgorod, Ukraine. He studied there with Marianna Sokach, and collaborated with Jozef Örmeny, professor at the National Academy of Music in Lviv. At that time, he wins several prizes in national competitions (in Ukraine), including first prize in the Henrich Neuhaus piano competition in Kirovograd in 2016 and the Grand Prize in the “FEURICH virtuoso” competition in Lviv the same year. Thanks to the Lviv competition, he participated in a masterclass by Anna Stempin-Jasnowska and did a recital in Warsaw.
In 2017 he participated in three categories of the piano competition in Brest, in his native region, and won a prize in each of them. Tied 3rd prize in the Chopin category, 1st prize in the Liszt category, and 1st prize in the Fauré, Debussy, Rachmaninov category. Following the competition, a recital is organized to raise funds to help the Ukrainian people. Thanks to the Brest competition, Adrian met Carlos Cebro, and participated in his masterclass at the Mont Dore musical meeting. That same year he won the 1st prize at the international competition in Nice, Côte d’Azur.
In October 2018 he played Rachmaninov's 2nd concerto with the Lviv Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. In 2019 he won the 6th prize in the piano competition in the city of Gagny. During his studies at the Uzhgorod musical high school, Adrian often performed on stage with his classmates in chamber music, he also played Chopin's 2nd concerto with the Transcarpathian academic symphonic orchestra.
In 2019, he entered the Royal Conservatory of Brussels directly in the second year, in the class of Johan Schmidt and Yoko Kikuchi. He often performs in recital, especially in France, Belgium and Ukraine. During this period he took several lessons with Rena Shereshevskaya. In November 2021, he performed Prokofiev's 2nd piano concerto with the Transcarpathian Academic Orchestra. In 2021, he obtained his Bachelor's degree with highest distinction, and in February 2022, second prize in the Young Euregio piano Award piano competition. In April of the same year, he participated in a series of masterclasses organized at the Mozarteum in Salzburg (ClaviCologne), where he collaborated in particular with Michel Beroff, Elisabeth Leonskaya, Robert Levin and Andreas Groethuysen. As part of his studies at the Brussels Conservatory, Adrian participates in masterclasses with Nino Tschirakadze, Vardan Mamikonian, Boyan Vodenicharov, Pascal Godart, Florent Boffard and Roland Pontinen. He recently participated in the Saline Royale Academy in Arc-et-Senans with Dmitry Alexeev. Since the start of the war in Ukraine Adrian has given a series of recitals in France (in Brittany and the south of France), the profits from which were donated to associations helping the Ukrainian people. He recently won the first prize at the Brueghel piano competition, held in Flagey in March 2023, which allowed him to be invited to perform Beethoven's third concerto at the auditorium of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Belgium, as part of the Musicorum festival. He obtained the highest distinction for his Master's degree at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, brilliantly interpreting Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto. Today he continues his career at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna in Anna Malikova’s class.
