Alexandre Kantorow, Piano

Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, where he also won the Grand Prix, only awarded three times before in the competition's history. The "young tsar of the piano" (Classica) has received numerous other awards and has performed worldwide at the highest level.

Kantorow began his career at an early stage; at 16 he made his debut at La Folle Journée festival in Nantes and since then has played with many of the world’s major orchestras. Highlights in recent and future seasons include concerts with the Orchestre de Paris, Staatskapelle Berlin, Philharmonia, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Boston Symphony, Montreal Symphony and Minnesota Orchestras and tours with the Orchestre National de Toulouse, Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic; conductors with whom he is performing include Rouvali, Barenboim, Kochanovsky, Yamada, Petrenko, Ivan Fischer, Sokhiev and Pappano amongst others.

In recital Kantorow appears at major concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in their Master Pianists series, Konzerthaus Berlin, Queen Elizabeth Hall London, Philharmonie de Paris, BOZAR in Brussels, Stockholm Konserthus and at the most prestigious festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Verbier Festival and Klavierfest Ruhr. In the 21/22 season he was Artist-in-Residence at Radio France, the Gstaad festival and with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. Chamber music is also one his great pleasures and he regularly performs with artists such as Victor Julien-Laferrière, Renaud Capuçon, Daniel Lozakovick and Matthias Goerne.

Kantorow records exclusively with BIS, to great critical acclaim. His latest recording of Brahms Solo Works received the 2022 Diapason d’Or and 2021 Trophée Radio Classique. His recordings of Saint-Saëns Concerti 3-5 and his solo disc of Brahms, Bartók and Liszt also won the Diapason d’Or and the Choc de l’Année (Classica) in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and his à la Russe recital recording won numerous awards and distinctions in 2017, including Choc de l’Année (Classica), Diapason découverte (Diapason), Supersonic (Pizzicato) and CD des Doppelmonats (PianoNews).

Kantorow is a laureate of the Safran Foundation and Banque Populaire, and in 2019 was named ‘Musical Revelation of the Year’ by the Professional Critics Association. In 2020, he won the Victoires de la Musique Classique in two categories: Recording of the Year and Instrumental Soloist of the Year. In 2021 he received the Trophée d’Année from Radio Classique.

Born in France and of French-British heritage, Kantorow studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Franck Braley and Rena Shereshevskaya.