Page "Jacques Loussier" Paragraph 1

Loussier's gift manifested itself at an early age.

He started piano lessons aged ten, in Angers, and after three months encountered his first J. S. Bach-the little G-minor Prelude.

It was a piece he fell in love with, he has said, and he played it ' tens, hundreds of times ', sometimes adding a note, missing another, and so changing a bit the spirit of the music.

He developed quickly and at 13, was taken to Paris to meet one of France's leading piansts, Yves Nat.

Every three months he went to Paris playing the music Nat wanted him to play, given advice, and then another programme for three months later to come back to play.

He began composing music while studying at the Conservatoire National de Musique, having moved then to Paris, under Professor Yves Nat, from the age of sixteen.