Acclaimed as “one of the great pianists of her generation” (Pianiste Magazine), Shani Diluka is an Exclusive Artist with Warner Classics. Her recordings regularly receive the highest critical accolades, including 5 Diapason, Choc de Classica, Gramophone selection, 4FFFF Télérama, the Japan Arena Award, as well as Arte and Mezzo recommendations.

Born in Monaco to parents of Sri Lankan origin, Shani Diluka embodies a singular bridge between East and West. Discovered at the age of six through a talent development programme founded by Princess Grace of Monaco, she became the first student from the Indian subcontinent to enter the Paris Conservatoire (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris), where she was awarded First Prize unanimously, with the jury’s highest commendation. She later joined the prestigious Lake Como International Piano Academy, an institution reserved for a select few pianists worldwide and presided over by the legendary Martha Argerich. There, she met her mentor Leon Fleisher and has also benefited from the guidance of Murray Perahia, Elisabeth Leonskaja and the late Alfred Brendel.

Her international career has taken her to the world’s most renowned venues, including the Philharmonie de Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, La Fenice in Venice, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Flagey in Brussels, the Tokyo Forum, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Bergen International Festival, the Festival de La Roque d’Anthéron, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the festivals of Grafenegg, Schwarzenberg and the Schubertiades of Hohenems, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and the Verbier Festival.

She is regularly invited by leading orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Heilbronn Württembergerisches Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the Tonkünstler Orchestra (Vienna), and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, performing under the baton of distinguished conductors including Lawrence Foster, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Ben Glassberg, Ludovic Morlot, Andrew Manze and Vladimir Fedosseyev…

Her passion for chamber music is equally strong. She collaborates regularly with eminent string quartets such as Ebène, Belcea, Ysaÿe, Modigliani and Prazak, and shares the stage with leading artists including Gautier Capuçon, Natalie Dessay and Michel Portal, as well as distinguished actors and performers such as Guillaume Gallienne, Denis Podalydès, Gérard Depardieu and Sophie Marceau.

Her discography, reflecting both intellectual rigour and artistic imagination, comprises bold and concept-driven albums: Schubert’s Last Sonata paired with Ländler and Waltzes; the relationship between Mozart and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach; Cosmos (Beethoven and Indian ragas based on his writing); The Proust Album (with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris); Pulse, exploring Minimalism music with the support of Philip Glass and Terry Riley; and an album devoted to Renaissance music and the Golden Ratio. These remarkable projects have not only won critical acclaim but have also significantly broadened her audience.

An accomplished pianist-poet, she is the author of Canopées and The Silences of Schubert, the former being included in the Poetry Selection of the Académie Française.

She has recently been appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture, named among the “100 Women of Culture”, and honoured as Chevalier of Culture and the Arts by Prince Albert of Monaco, recognising her role as a major cultural ambassador between European traditions and the wider world.

Forthcoming projects

Her album Renaissance, released in September 2025, benefited from exceptional exposure on Arte Concert. It received widespread international critical acclaim and an unprecedented public response, with over 25 million streams.

From the 2025/26 season onwards, she becomes Artistic Director of the renowned Concerts du Dimanche Matin, which enter a new era at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, alongside a new recording series with Warner Classics and major collaborative projects with the Philharmonie de Paris.

She is preparing a recording devoted to Bach’s The Art of Fugue for 2027, and an exceptional collaboration with the Mozarteum Camerata Salzburg around Schubert and Beethoven for the 2027–2028 season.

Deeply shaped by her Buddhist values, she views music as a path towards poetry, humanism, the sacred nature of texts and a universalist inspiration, making her one of the most distinctive artistic voices of her generation. The Sunday Times describes her as “passionate, sensitive and immensely gifted”, while the German magazine Fono Forum hails her as a “master of mysterious whispering, transporting us towards the stars”. She is also praised as an “exceptional interpreter” (Le Figaro), credited with a “winged virtuosity, a deep and singing touch that lingers long in the listener’s memory like an haunting perfume” (Choc de Classica), and described as “greatest classical virtuoso” by France Inter.