räsonanz – Munich 2018
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
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. In 2017, he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.
He has performed throughout the world each season with major orchestras under conductors including Pierre Boulez, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Eötvös and Sir Simon Rattle. He has been invited to curate, direct and perform in a number of residencies, with projects at Carnegie Hall, New York‘s Lincoln Center, Vienna‘s Konzerthaus, Berlin‘s Philharmonie, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, the Lucerne Festival, Mozarteum Salzburg, Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Tanglewood Festival and London‘s Southbank Centre. Aimard was the Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival from 2009 to 2016. One of the highlights of his last season as festival director was the performance of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux.
This season, the pianist began his three-year residency at the Southbank Centre in London, where he will perform works by Messiaen with the Aurora Orchestra, Mozart with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Ravel with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Other engagements this season include recitals in Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, St Petersburg, Paris, Vienna and New York, as well as at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.
Born in Lyon in 1957, Pierre-Laurent Aimard studied with Genevieve Lièvre before studying 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 at the age of 16 and being appointed, at the age of 19, by Pierre Boulez to become the Ensemble intercontemporain‘s first solo pianist. Aimard has had close collaborations with many leading composers including Boulez, Kurtág, Stockhausen, Carter, Lachenmann, George Benjamin and Marco Stroppa and had a long association with Ligeti, recording his complete works for piano.
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. In 2015 he launched a major online resource centred on the performance and teaching of Ligeti’s piano music with filmed masterclasses and performances of the Études and other works by Ligeti in collaboration with Klavier-Festival Ruhr.
Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s extensive discography has won numerous awards, including the Diapason d’Or, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the ECHO Klassik and a Grammy. He recently signed an exclusive contract with the label Pentatone. Under this new partnership, the complete recording of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux was released in spring 2018.