Les Nocturnes du piano
- Festival -

When Christine Gastaud approached me with the idea of organizing a piano festival on the Cagnes-sur-Mer racecourse, I had long had the idea of staging a musical event on the site, and could only agree to accompany her in her undertaking.
That was 3 years ago.

The first two editions were made possible by a number of miracles: 

• First and foremost, that the local authorities immediately agreed to provide the financial support essential to the completion of the project. Thank you to the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer and to Louis Nègre, thank you to the Conseil Départemental and to Presidents Charles Ange Ginésy and Eric Ciotti, thank you to the Région and to President Renaud Muselier, as well as to the many companies and personalities who have given Christine Gastaud and the Association "Le Piano en Liberté" the means to realize their ambition.
• The second miracle was the discovery of the acoustic quality of a venue that anyone would have thought atypical or even "improbable". But Christine had seen or rather "heard" right, having been immediately convinced of the quality of the place.
• The third is Christine's bulimic energy: in addition to the 6 evening recitals, she organized days of competitions which, from the very first year, met with the success of worldwide participation. 

Last but not least, we can't fail to mention the beauty of the site when, at nightfall, only the artist and his piano emerge, as if resting on the nearby Mediterranean. In the warm summer nights, there's all the freshness of the art of these young talents, whose blossoming is the vocation of this festival.

With this third edition, Les Nocturnes du Piano are approaching the threshold of maturity. There's no longer any doubt that this festival is destined to become a major musical event. The 162 candidates of 43 different nationalities competing this year in the Artist and Young Artist categories of the Samson François 2024 International Piano Competition are an edifying illustration of this.