Pierre-Laurent Aimard (born 9 September 1957) is a French pianist.

Biography

Aimard was born in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

, where he entered the conservatory. Later he studied with

Yvonne Loriod Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen (; 20 January 1924 – 17 May 2010) was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod. Biography Loriod ...

and with Maria Curcio. In 1973, he was awarded the chamber music prize of the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

. In the same year, he won the first prize at the international

Olivier Messiaen Competition The Olivier Messiaen Competition is an international contemporary piano competition organized by the City of Paris in homage to the French composer Olivier Messiaen. The first edition took place in 2000. Laureates of the competition See also ...

. In 1977, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he became a founding member of the

Ensemble InterContemporain The Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC) is a French music ensemble, based in Paris, that is dedicated to contemporary music. Pierre Boulez founded the EIC in 1976 for this purpose, the first permanent organization of its type in the world. Organi ...

. He made his American debut with the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891. The ensemble makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival. The music director is Riccardo Muti, who began his tenu ...

at the age of twenty, performing the piano solo part in Olivier Messiaen's ''

Turangalîla-Symphonie The ''Turangalîla-Symphonie'' is the only symphony by Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992). It was written for an orchestra of large forces from 1946 to 1948 on a commission by Serge Koussevitzky in his wife's memory for the Boston Symphony Orchestr ...

''. Aimard is particularly committed to contemporary music. He was the soloist in several premieres of works such as '' Répons'' by Pierre Boulez, '' Klavierstück XIV'' by

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

, and the eleventh and thirteenth piano études of

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...

. One of his most notable recordings is that of the first two books of Ligeti's piano études. He has also performed the work of contemporary composers such as George Benjamin,

Roberto Carnevale Roberto Carnevale (born 15 June 1966) is an Italian composer, pianist and conductor. Biography and career Born in Catania, he started studying piano at the age of seven. He took a degree in Arts at the University of Catania and he attended th ...

and

Marco Stroppa Marco Stroppa (born 8 December 1959, in Verona) is an Italian composer who writes computer music as well as music for instruments with live electronics. Biography Marco Stroppa studied piano, composition, choral direction and electronic music at ...

. In May 2012, he premiered

Tristan Murail Tristan Murail (born 11 March 1947) is a French composer associated with the "spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work ''Gondwana''. Early life and studies Murail was born in Le Havre, France. His fa ...

's piano concerto ''Le Désenchantement du Monde''. Aimard was one of Carnegie Hall's "Perspectives" artists for the 2006–2007 concert season, where he programmed his own series of concerts. He served as artist-in-residence with the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Se ...

for two seasons, from 2007 to 2009. In 2007 Aimard was the Music Director of the

Ojai Music Festival The Ojai Music Festival is an annual classical music festival in the United States. Held in Ojai, California (75 miles northwest of Los Angeles), for four days every June, the festival presents music, symposia, and educational programs emphasizi ...

. In addition to his work with contemporary music, Aimard has recorded the five

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

piano concertos with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, at the invitation of Harnoncourt. Aimard has recorded for the Sony Classical and Teldec labels. In August 2007, he signed a new recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Aimard has recently extended his musical activities to conducting, although he characterized his interest and gift for conducting as follows: In 2009, Aimard became the Artistic Director of the

Aldeburgh Festival The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall. History of the Aldeburgh Festival Th ...

in England, for an initial contract of 3 years. Aimard is a visiting professor and an Honorary Member (2006) of the Royal Academy of Music. He appears in the 2007 film '' Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037''. Aimard was featured recording Bach's ''

The Art of Fugue ''The Art of Fugue'', or ''The Art of the Fugue'' (german: Die Kunst der Fuge, links=no), BWV 1080, is an incomplete musical work of unspecified instrumentation by Johann Sebastian Bach. Written in the last decade of his life, ''The Art of Fug ...

'' in the 2009 award-winning German-Austrian documentary '' Pianomania'', about Steinway & Sons' piano technician Stefan Knüpfer, which was directed by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis. The film premiered theatrically in North America, where it was met with positive reviews by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', as well as in Asia and throughout Europe, and is a part of the Goethe-Institut catalogue. In 2017 Aimard signed with the PENTATONE label. Under this collaboration Aimard intends to record key works from his repertoire, spanning three centuries and ranging from Bach to Kurtág, beginning with his first ever recording of Messiaen's Catalogue d'Oiseaux.

Selected discography

*''African Rhythms'' – compositions by

and Steve Reich, with songs of Aka Pygmies.

Teldec Teldec (Telefunken-Decca Schallplatten GmbH) is a German record label in Hamburg, Germany. Today the label is a property of Warner Music Group. History Teldec was a producer of (first) shellac and (later) vinyl records. The Teldec manufacturing ...

2003 *

Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonicall ...

– Catalogue d'oiseaux. Pentatone PTC 5186670 (2018). *Visions – Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, Pentatone PTC5186957 (2022)

References

External links

Official website(German) official website at Universal Music(German) education projects on temporary piano music with Pierre-Laurent AimardRoyal Academy of Music page on Pierre-Laurent Aimard
4 May 1998

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aimard, Pierre-Laurent 1957 births Living people Musicians from Lyon 20th-century French male classical pianists Erato Records artists Deutsche Grammophon artists Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Academics of the Royal Academy of Music Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris Conservatoire de Paris alumni Piano pedagogues Pupils of Maria Curcio Helpmann Award winners Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winners Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln 21st-century French male classical pianists