Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Piano

Widely acclaimed as a key figure in contemporary music and as a uniquely significant interpreter of the piano repertoire from every era, Pierre-Laurent Aimard enjoys an internationally celebrated career.

He performs throughout the world each season with major orchestras under conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Péter Eötvös. He has been invited to create, direct and perform in a number of residencies, with recent venues including Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, the Wiener Konzerthaus, Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Opéra de Paris, the Lucerne Festival, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Cité de la Musique and the Southbank Centre where he was Artistic Advisor for a festival celebrating the music of Pierre Boulez. Aimard is also the Artistic Director of the prestigious and historic Aldeburgh Festival where he has just signed for another three years. Commenting on his directorship, the Financial Times wrote that “Aimard virtually turned the festival on its head. Suddenly Aldeburgh feels less parochial, less precious – and very international.”

Highlights of the 2011–12 season include solo recitals in Berlin, London, New York, San Francisco, Paris and Tokyo. He will make concert appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Simon Rattle and with the Cleveland and Chicago Symphony Orchestras under the baton of Pierre Boulez. He also regularly conducts concerts from the keyboard with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Born in Lyon in 1957, Pierre-Laurent Aimard studied at the Conservatoire de Paris under Yvonne Loriod and in London under Maria Curcio. Early career landmarks include winning first prize in the 1973 Messiaen Competition at the age of sixteen and being appointed, three years later, by Pierre Boulez as the Ensemble intercontemporain’s first solo pianist.

Aimard has enjoyed close partnerships with many leading composers including Kurtág, Stockhausen, Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez and George Benjamin in addition to his long association with György Ligeti, recording his complete works for piano. Through professorships at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the Conservatoire de Paris, as well as numerous series of concert lectures and workshops internationally, he sheds an inspirational and highly personal light on music from all periods.

In 2009 Aimard was invited to give a series of classes and seminars at the Collège de France in Paris. He was the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award in spring 2005 and was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” byMusical America in 2007.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard currently records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. His first release on Deutsche Grammophon – Bach’s The Art of the Fugue – received both the  Diapason d’Or and Choc du monde de la musique awards, debuted at No 1 in  Billboard’s classical charts and topped iTunes’ classical album download chart. In recent years Pierre-Laurent Aimard has been honoured with an ECHO Klassik award, most recently in 2009 for his recording of solo piano pieces entitledHommage à Messiaen, in addition to being presented with Germany’s Schallplattenkritik Honorary Award the same year. His recording of Ives’ Concord Sonata and Songs received a  Grammy award in 2005 while several other recordings have receivedGrammy nominations. Autumn 2011 saw the release of The Liszt Project – Aimard’s two solo discs featuring the music of Liszt alongside music by Berg, Bartók, Ravel, Scriabin and Messiaen as well as a work by Marco Stroppa.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard official website www.pierrelaurentaimard.com/