About
Passionate about classical music from her earliest age, it is on stage that Diana Cooper attains artistic fulfilment.
Diana has performed in various venues and festivals in France and abroad, including the Nohant Chopin Festival, the Festival Chopin à Paris, the Salle Cortot, the Polish Embassy in Paris, the Ysaye Festival in Belgium, the Palacio de Congresos in Huesca, Spain, the Hrvatski dom Split in Croatia, the Kielce Filharmonia in Poland…
In 2023, she was selected to take part in the project Un été en France avec Gautier Capuçon, for which she performed solo and chamber music in several open-air concerts across France.
She was invited in 2018 to take part in the radio program Générations Jeunes Interprètes on France Musique and, in 2023, performed as a trio in the television programme Fauteuils d’orchestre, broadcast on France 5.
Her activity has been enriched by solo appearances with the Orchestre Symphonique du Sud Ouest in Chopin’s 1st Concerto, the Orchestre Appassionato in Mozart’s 20th concerto, and the Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire de Paris in Schumann’s concerto, performed in 2023 at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
Born in France to a French-Spanish mother and a British father, she began studying piano at the Tarbes Conservatoire with Jean-Paul Cristille, whose teaching and support had a major impact on her musical development. Her first solo recital dates back to the age of 9 and at 14 she performed with orchestra Mozart’s Concerto n° 21 in France and Spain.
She was unanimously admitted at the age of 16 to the Paris Conservatoire to study with Jean-François Heisser and Marie-Josèphe Jude and graduated with a master’s degree five years later. She went on studying for three years at the Ecole Normale de Musique with the renowned professor Rena Schereshevskaya and in 2022, she was selected to join the new season of the Académie Musicale Philippe Jaroussky, where she perfected her skills with Cédric Thiberghien. That same year, she was admitted on an Artist Diploma course at the Paris Conservatoire. She is currently studying at the Royal College of Music in London where she has been admitted to pursue a second Artist Diploma programme in Norma Fisher’s class. Diana won 3rd Prize at the Chappell Medal Competition at RCM and has recently been selected to join the Talent Unlimited charity as well as the Kirckman Concert Society promoting young talented musicians and offering them concerts in London.
In addition, Diana has been a regular participant in the Oxford Piano Academy and Festival as well as the Académie Maurice Ravel (Saint Jean-de-Luz), for which she won the Rotary-Lions prize and the Ysaye Festival prize in Belgium.
Throughout her studies, she has benefited from the advice of renowned pianists such as Prisca Benoît, Jonas Vitaud, Pascal Amoyel, Menahem Pressler, Gary Graffman, Ferenc Rados, Christoffer Elton, Jean-Claude Pennetier, and Andrzej Jasiński.
A laureate of the Fondation de la Banque Populaire, the Fondation Safran and the Kathleen Trust, Diana Cooper has distinguished herself in several international competitions. The Flame international competition in Paris, where she won 1st Grand Prize at the age of 12, offered her masterclasses the following summer with Karl-Heins Kämmerling at the Salzburg Mozarteum. She subsequently won 1st Prize at the Chopin Competition in Brest, 2nd at the Concours International d’Ile-de-France and 2nd at the Concurso Internacional de Piano Delia Steinberg (Madrid). Having recently won 1st Prize at the International Piano Competition Halina Czerny-Stefanská in Poznań (Poland) as well as 1st Prize at the Concurso Internacional de piano de Vigo, (Spain), these awards have earned her several past and upcoming engagements in renowned venues in Poland, Spain and Croatia.
Following her pre-selection in 2021 for the prestigious Chopin Competition in Warsaw, she was invited the following summers by Philippe Giusiano to take part in masterclasses in Katowice as well as concerts at the Chopin Manor in Duszniki, organised by the Chopin Foundation.
Diana has recently recorded her first CD, featuring works by Haydn, Chopin and Ravel, after winning 1st Prize in the Concours d’aide aux Jeunes Artistes organised by the Festival du Vexin.
