Mourad Tsimpou, a young piano prodigy known by the stage name Mourad, died Saturday at the age of 19 after a long illness, one of his managers told AFP.
He died Saturday morning at the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris, from a rare liver disease (ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, OTC) from which he had suffered since childhood, explained Salim Lebghil, one of the two directors of 1392 Records.
Mourad’s musical story began during yet another visit to the Marseille hospital of La Timone. Originally from the city of La Castellane in the northern districts of Marseille, like Zinedine Zidane, he discovered a piano there, he who had never played one in his life. He was 14, listened to an impromptu by Chopin on the Internet and reproduced it by improvising. Mourad had “perfect pitch, he played without sheet music”, explains Salim Lebghil.
The scene was captured by another patient, who posted it on social networks, sparking incredible enthusiasm.
It was the start of a whirlwind career, two albums, a third in preparation. He collaborated with André Manoukian, the rap star Soprano and for example performed at the Top 14 rugby final in 2021 playing La Marseillaise or before an Olympique de Marseille match.
“The blue and white people will remember a boy who expressed his love for Marseille and OM like no one else using his piano,” the Marseille football club reacted on X, ex-Twitter.
“Genius Marseille pianist. His unique playing, so young, impressed and moved us all”, tweeted for his part the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan when the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region Renaud Muselier considered that “Mourad Tsimpou will have offered us the grace of rare and fraternal moments”.
He will be buried in the Comoros where his family is from.
