Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Widely acclaimed as a key figure in the music of our time, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has enjoyed close collaborations with leading composers including György Ligeti, George Benjamin, György Kurtág, Helmut Lachenmann, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Pierre Boulez, who appointed him to become the Ensemble intercontemporain’s first solo pianist. He also had a close association with Messiaen and with Yvonne Loriod, with whom he studied at the Paris Conservatoire.
In 2023/24 he focused on programmes of works by Ligeti, which he presented in Europe, the United States, Japan and China. He also performed with the Czech Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestre National de France, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, at the Southbank Centre, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Vienna Musikverein, the Philharmonie de Luxembourg, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and continued his collaborations with Tamara Stefanovich and Michael Wollny.
He has given the world premieres of works including Elliott Carter’s Epigrams and Harrison Birtwistle’s Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless and Keyboard Engine for two pianos. This season he has given the world premiere of Clara Iannotta’s Piano Concerto at the Eight Bridges Festival in Cologne and the first Portuguese performance of Klaus Ospald’s Se da contra las piedas la libertad.
For Pentatone, following Visions de l’Amen (2022) with Tamara Stefanovich, Beethoven’s ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata and Eroica Variations (2021) and Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux (2018), which was awarded the German Record Critics’ Award, he has most recently released a recording of Bartók’s complete piano concertos with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen, in 2023.
An innovative curator, he has directed and performed in a number of residencies, including for Musikkollegium Winterthur. He was artistic director of the Aldeburgh Festival (2009—16), and is currently Head of New Music at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid. Pierre-Laurent Aimard is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts and has won numerous awards, including the International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2017 and Denmark’s Léonie Sonning Music Prize in 2022.