Born in 1943, he began his musical studies at the age of five. Prepared by teachers such as Marcel Jacquinot, Pierre Sancan and later by Jacques Fevrier and Reine Gianoli, in 1965 he obtained his concert diploma at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris and won the international competitions of Vercelli and Bozzoli. He then obtained scholarships to study in Siena, Salzburg and Moscow and began his concert career devoting his attention to composers such as Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy and Bartok.

He participated in numerous radio and television programs in France both as a pianist and as a producer. He has performed frequently with the Orchestras of Radio France and the Champs-Elysees Theatre. He has made numerous recordings with works by Szymanowski, Denissov, Boulez, Satie, Janacek, Debussy and is in the process of making others with works by Prokofiev, Milhaud, Janacek, Richard Strauss, and Schnittke. His repertoire is extremely varied and ranges from fortepiano music to contemporary music, from chamber music to piano and orchestra.

He has collaborated with musicians such as Alain Meunier, Devy Erlih, the Parennin Quartet, Dominique Merlet, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Domi-nique de Williencourt, the BWV Trio… The figure of Jean-Pierre Armengaud is also characterized by his ability to combine his musical studies with a brilliant university career that began with a degree from the Istitute of Political Studies in Paris. He was actively interested in the diffusion of contemporary music and founded in 1970 the Fetes Musicales de la Sainte Bourne where works from Ghana, Stockhausen, Denissov, Schnittke…

He also organized many musical events and more, collaborating with painters, actors and poets. It is perhaps this versatility and variety of interests that binds him to the figure of Erik Satie of whom he has recorded the complete piano works and on whose life and work he has written and published two volumes. He is the author of the “Storia della Musica da Beethoven ai nostri giorni” published in the Petite Encyclopedie Larousse and of articles written for numerous musical periodicals.

Since 1975 he has held important administrative positions first for the Ministry of Culture as delegate for musical activities in the Provence-Cote d’Azur region and then for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Cultural Councillor in Stockholm and Athens and Director of the French Cultural Institute in Hamburg.