Élisabeth Pion

29
Birthplace: Saint-Hyacinthe, Canada
Studied in: Pinerolo, Italy; London, United Kingdom; and Montréal, Canada
Resides in: London, United Kingdom

Not long ago, 2025 Honens Gold Laureate Élisabeth Pion (ɪˈlɪzəbəth Pee-on) finished a rehearsal of the Maurice Ravel Piano Concerto with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and invited the players to join her for a Tai Chi session before the performance.

She’s been studying Tai Chi for a few years—a discipline that helps her feel grounded and strengthens the inner compass that guides both her daily life and her preparation for the stage.

Élisabeth began playing the piano at age five in a household filled with music. She felt an intuitive physical relationship to the keyboard and could play for hours on end. She loved science, literature, and philosophy, but decided at 19 to pursue a career in music.

After studying in Montréal, she moved to London, UK for advanced training, which included a class on improvisation. It was absolutely terrifying at first, but she was soon crafting cadenzas and even her own compositions.

Élisabeth revels in the sound of the piano, the possibility of intricate polyphony, its qualities of being both a singing and a percussive instrument. She believes the piano speaks to people from all walks of life, regardless of their musical preferences.

“Performance,” she says, “is a way of sharing a deep connection with others in real time, enveloped in a heightened sense of consciousness, of transcendence through art.”

As for competitions, Élisabeth enjoys the rigorous preparation and endless search for the next level of comprehension and craftsmanship —an approach that culminated in her being named Gold Laureate and Audience Choice Award recipient at the 2025 Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada. Even when she’s been eliminated early on, she’s made the most of it through learning new repertoire, forging new friendships, and discovering new places.