About Alexandre

In 2019, aged 22, Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, along with the rarely awarded Grand Prix, granted only three times in the competition’s history. In 2024, he was recognised once again when he received the esteemed Gilmore Artist Award, solidifying his place as one the world’s leading pianists. Gramophone magazine has described him as“the real deal, a fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm and innate stylistic mastery”. He is in demand at the highest level across the globe, performing in the world’s finest halls both in recital and with the most renowned orchestras and conductors.

Highlights of Kantorow’s 25/26 season include a tour of Japan with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mäkelä, European tours with the Filarmonica della Scala and Chailly and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Paavo Järvi, a tour of Asia with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and van Zweden, and a tour to the US with the Philharmonia and Alsop which includes a performance at Carnegie Hall. He will also embark on a major recital tour of North America, make his debut with the San Francisco Symphony and return to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestras.

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Kantorow performs in recital regularly across the globe, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam,Vienna Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Tokyo Suntory Hall, and at festivals such as Edinburgh, Salzburg, La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Verbier, Rheingau and Klavierfest Ruhr. Chamber music is one of his great pleasures and he performs regularly with artists such as Janine Jansen, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon and Matthias Goerne. With Liya Petrova and Aurélien Pascal he is co-artistic director of the Musikfest and "Rencontres Musicales de Nîmes" and the Pianopolis festival in Angers.

In recent seasons, Kantorow has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic and Budapest Festival orchestras and with conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Ivan Fischer, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Sir Antonio Pappano.

Alexandre Kantorow records exclusively for BIS. His recordings have received the highest critical acclaim worldwide. In 2024, he was awarded the title of Chevalier of the National Order of Merit by the French President of the Republic, having previously been made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture. In July 2024, Kantorow performed Ravel's Jeux d’eau at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games.

Alexandre Kantorow studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Frank Braley, and Rena Shereshevskaya.

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