He had originally wanted to become a trombonist. But then Jonathan Fournel discovered recordings by György Cziffra and Vladimir Horowitz in his father’s record collection, and he knew for sure: this was where it was at. This was how he wanted to play. The young Lorrainer’s talent become so rapidly evident that he was accepted as a young student into the class of Robert Leonardy at Saarbrücken University of Music at the age of 13. He then went on to study with Louis Lortie, who remains an important influence on his artistic approach. In 2021, at the renowned Reine Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, the jury was particularly convinced by Fournel’s interpretations of Brahms, his favorite composer: in the semifinal round he played Brahms’s Handel Variations, and in the final round he won First Prize with his rendition of the Second Piano Concerto. Fournel will thus obviously be featuring a further great work by Brahms on the occasion of his début appearance at the Ruhr Piano Festival: the impressive Sonata in F Minor.