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The Cincinnati-born pianist, 38, left to study at the Paris Conservatory when he 13. He lives in the 19th arrondissement in Paris.
He gives interviews in perfect French.
Brush up your français and see him on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm6WMXTk_aA&feature=related as he discusses and rehearses Mozart at the 2008 Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
"In France, I often hear people speak about him as an upcoming, big, young French star," said Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director Paavo Järvi, who will lead CSO concerts this weekend featuring Angelich in Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1. Concerts are at 7:30 p.m. April 30, 11 a.m. May 1 and 8 p.m. May 2 at Music Hall.
"I have to smile when I hear this because, of course, he was brought up in Cincinnati and his father Bora (CSO violinist Borivoye Angelich) is playing in our orchestra. The French consider him a local star and we consider him our own as well."
The French identity is "a misconception," said Angelich, "because I have lived there for quite a long time. I never became French. I still have my American nationality."
Still, "it's a gypsy life, so you don't know where you're from or where you're living anymore," said Angelich, who performs throughout Europe and North America and has an enviable discography, including several prize-winning CDs and recordings of both Brahms Piano Concertos with Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra.
Angelich began playing the piano at age five. HIs mother was his first teacher and he made his debut at seven with a local chamber orchestra playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major.
The French connection arose through coincidence, said Angelich. "My mother studied at the time with a student of Cortot (Alfred Cortot, French pianist and member of the famed Thibaud/Casals/Cortot Trio). There was another student in the same class who had studied in Paris with Aldo Ciccolini, and when she listened to me she said. 'why doesn't he go and study with Ciccolini?'" She arranged an audition and I went to play and that was it."
Angelich and his mother packed up and went to France.
"I did miss home a lot, but at the same time I got something new. I learned a new language and was, of course, studying with someone incredible (Ciccolini's other students included Jean-Yves Thibaudet)."
At the Paris Conservatory, he studied with Ciccolini, Yvonne Loriot and Michel Berof, winning first prizes in piano, chamber music and piano accompaniment.
In his 20s, he studied with Leon Fleischer. "It was in Europe not in America. I was part of a piano foundation in Lake Como Italy very near to where Artur Schnabel used to give classes many years ago, where Leon Fleischer studied with him."
He made a sweep of piano competitions, winning second prize in the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition in 1989 and first prize in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in 1994.
"That was a wonderful time. I learned quite a lot of things and have very fond memories of all the people I met there and of course, professionally, it did represent a lot for me."
In May, 1992 at Music Hall, Angelich performed with music director Jesus Lopez-Cobos and the CSO on the nine-foot Steinway grand piano used by Vladimir Horowitz on his travels. (The instrument had been making the rounds of Steinway dealers and was the subject of a lecture recital by pianist David Dubal at the Museum Center at Union Terminal in April of that year.) How did it feel to touch the master's own keys?
"I had the sense that the sound was incredible," said Angelich, who performed the CSO premiere of a newly discovered piano concerto by Franz Liszt as well as Liszt's "Totentanz." "At the same time I think some things in the mechanism were perhaps a little changed. I'm thinking it was because the piano was on tour and probably had been played quite a bit so it had some work done on it." (In fact, Steinway customers were invited to reserve a time to come in and play the instrument.)
Angelch returned to the CSO in 2002 to perform Brahms' Second Piano Concerto at Music Hall with guest conductor Stephane Deneve. In 2006 he was named by Gramophone magazine named Angelich one of "Tomorrow's Classical Superstars."
In addition to their Brahms Concerto recordings, Angelich has performed with Järvi several times in Europe, both in Frankfurt and in Paris. This may increase when Järvi becomes music director of the Orchestre de Paris in 2010, he hinted.
Angelich, who stays with his parents in Sharonville while he is in Cincinnati, still has friends here despite having lived abroad for so long.
"I've been away a long time, but this is a just a way of life. It's very exciting and a lot of fun, but at the same time it's hard. Life in general -- for anyone -- is complicated, because things change. You meet new people, you move and you do different things. You think, ah, there's a lot of people that you don't see anymore. I think we all have to deal with that."
He tries to limit the number of concerts he plays, he said. "I will not go over a certain amount. You have to be careful to preserve some sort of space for yourself as a human being and also as a musician. It's very, very important.
"I'm not married yet. I'm sort of married to my work." Still, he said, "as the years go by, you work and you work and you work. You think, well, you have to somehow think abut the rest, too."
He keeps up with his English by reading.
"I love to read fiction, whether it's contemporary or something older (also poetry, non-fiction, essays and philosophy). "I read a lot in French and also in English. Basically, not always having the chance to speak as much English as I'd like, reading brings me something very important, very essential."
Surprisingly, he does not own or use a computer.
Told that he is appearing on YouTube and web fan sites, he said, "I don't know about any of that. It's rather amusing and frightening as well. I have to have a look when I get a computer."