Suzanne Ramon – Gala Concert to the 10th Anniversary of György Cziffra’s Death

Suzanne Ramon was born in Budapest. At the age of six, she was already a student at the Conservatory, and in 1956, when she was barely ten years old, she won the Bartók Béla Award. This year meant also a rupture in Ramon’s life. Her family left Hungary and settled in Israel. She was thirteen years old, when she first presented her talent to the Isreali audience at the Art Palace in Tel Aviv. In 1962 she received a scholarship from the National Higher Music Conservatory in Paris, and became the student of the great master, André Navarra. This is where the legendary Hungarian pianist, György Cziffra noticed her and became Ramon’s master and fatherly best friend.
Two years later, in 1964, the jury of the Parisian Conservatory unanimously decided to award the First Cello Award to Ramon. In the same year, she won the International Competition in Geneve, while in Italy Ramon won the Oreste Ferrari grand award, as well as the Chigiana Academy’s award in Siena. At the end of this unique series of success, the following year Ramon won the First Prize of the Chamber Music in the Parisian Conservatory. Her talent was soon applauded by audiences in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium …

„One needs to hear as well as see Suzanne Ramon’s play. She embraces the instrument into her arms, a marvelous Guarneri from 1690… The bow sometimes recites and sings, then howls or cries on the strings – a human voice breaking out from the deepest gut and memory. One needs to hear these entries vertiginously penetrating into the flesh, and see the imperious opening movement, which divides silence from the world of the open sea’s song. (Alain Duault, the Grand Prix member of the French Academy)