Jean-Claude ORFALI Solo Piano in Chicago & Guests: “Toujours l’amour! “

Toujours l’amour!

From Piaf to Sinatra and Michel Legrand to his own original songs, Jean-Claude ORFALI, pianist, performs his jazzy and semi-classical arrangements of standards, French and International music. Join him as he takes you on a musical journey with his various improvisations and variations on the worldʼs most beautiful melodies. Above all, his aim is to share with his audience the emotional content of his music, taking particular care to bring out its spiritual beauty and qualities.

We are serving this concert as “dessert” to the Cabaret Connexion concert festival, with the inestimable pianist Jean-Claude ORFALI, direct from the Cabaret Lapin Agile of Paris and special guest vocalists Christine Steyer, Claudia Hommel and Angélique Dessaint. Offering inventions and variations on new and favorite French love songs.

Jean-Claude ORFALI pianist, composer and music director. He comes from a family of musicians. Very early on, his father Elie ORFALI , a pianist and composer, gave him a taste for music and taught him the basics of the profession. At a young age, he took private piano lessons with Giuseppe PULLI and followed classical training at the conservatory with Herta PAPPO and with the Royal Schools of London. He also took composition and singing lessons and trained in jazz piano and orchestral conducting.

He began his career in 1984 with a variety group and then as a solo artist. He exercised his talent on numerous cruises during which he acquired experience in contact with an international audience.
In Paris, and for several years, we have been able to listen to him regularly in palaces such as: the George V, the Bristol, the Plaza-Athénée, the Crillon, the Meurice and many others. He appears at the oldest Parisian artistic cabaret Lapin Agile and serves as pianist and instructor for the Chicago Paris Cabaret Connexion. He has participated in many international events and gives a few concerts in several countries around the world.He performs a varied repertoire of world music and jazz standards as well as international songs.

Since 1997, he has been the pianist of the Parisian jazz Big Band ” BB15 “; he took over as its director in 2009, succeeding guitarist and conductor Gérard CURBILLON. With the BB15 he has given various concerts at UNESCO, the Luxembourg Gardens, the Champ de Mars, the Asnières Theatre, the Parc Floral, etc. He also plays in a small jazz group and accompanies jazz and French song singers on the piano.

ORFALI has composed and performed for film. He also composes for American, Canadian and Middle Eastern singers and is collaborating with the American soprano Christine Steyer on a book of cabaret songs.

He has accompanied Mexican diva Maria Felix on the piano and has performed in the presence of international show business stars: Celine Dion, Lionel Richie, Paul McCartney, Mariah Carey, Quincy Jones, Morgan Freeman, Mel Gibson, Isabelle Adjani, Jean-Michel Jarre, Line Renaud, Ron Wood (Rolling Stones), Johnny Hallyday and many others.