ARTISTS

Piano Pierre-Laurent Aimard

PROFILE


Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time and as a uniquely significant interpreter of piano repertoire from every age, Pierre-Laurent Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated career which transcends traditional boundaries.
 
Performing throughout the world each season with the most significant orchestras and conductors, Aimard has in recent seasons been invited to create, direct and perform in groundbreaking residencies with Carnegie Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Berliner Philharmonie, Palais Garnier / Opera de Paris, the Lucerne Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, The Cleveland Orchestra and Cité de la Musique. Following on from his Artistic Directorship of Southbank Centre´s Messiaen centenary festival in 2008, June 2009 marked his first year as Artistic Director of the prestigious and historic Aldeburgh Festival. He was presented with Germany´s Schallplattenkritik “Honorary Prize” in December 2009.
 
Highlights of the 2009/10 season include an Auftakt residency at the Alte Oper Frankfurt comprising recital, chamber music, orchestral and lieder repertoire, as well as solo recitals in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Rome, Madrid, Vienna and Berlin. He will reappear as concerto soloist with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw and London Symphony Orchestras - while in the US, weeks with the Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras (with Pierre Boulez and James Levine respectively) culminate in consecutive evening performances at Carnegie Hall.
 
Through professorships at the Hochschule Köln and Conservatoire de Paris, as well as numerous series of concert lectures and workshops worldwide, he sheds an inspiring and very personal light on music of all periods. During 2009, Aimard was invited to give a series of classes and seminars at the College de France, Paris; he was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society´s Instrumentalist Award in spring 2005; and was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by Musical America in 2007.
 
Born in Lyon in 1957, Pierre-Laurent Aimard studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Yvonne Loriod, and in London with Maria Curcio. Early career landmarks included winning first prize in the 1973 Messiaen Competition, and being appointed at the age of 19 by Pierre Boulez to become the Ensemble intercontemporain´s first solo pianist. For more than 15 years Aimard collaborated closely with György Ligeti, recording his complete works for piano.
 
Pierre-Laurent now records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. His first DG release, Bach´s Art of Fugue, received both the ´Diapason d´Or´ and ´Choc du Monde de la Musique´ awards, debuted at No. 1 on Billboard´s classical chart and topped iTunes´ classical album download chart. In recent years Pierre-Laurent has been honoured with ECHO Classic Awards, both in 2003 for his recording of the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe led by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and in 2004 for his CD of Debussy´s Images and Etudes. In addition, Aimard won a Grammy award for his recording of Ives´s Concord Sonata and Songs with Susan Graham in 2005.
 
Other releases in recent years include recital discs of Ravel, Carter and Schumann, while his disc of Mozart´s Piano Concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, directed from the keyboard by Aimard, has been hailed by Die Zeit as “one of the most exquisite Mozart recordings of all time”. Pierre-Laurent´s recording of Mozart´s Piano Concertos Nos.17 & 18 and Mozart´s Symphony No. 33, recorded live at the Styriarte Festival in 2006, received MIDEM´s first Classical Award in their download category. Pierre-Laurent´s most recent recording of solo piano pieces, "Hommage à Messiaen", was released in October 2008. His latest disc for DG of Ravel´s Piano Concertos, recorded with the Cleveland Orchestra and Pierre Boulez is due for release in autumn 2010.

GALLERY

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