Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (born 9 September 1957) is a French pianist. He was born in Lyon, where he entered the conservatory. Later he studied with Yvonne Loriod.

In 1973, he was awarded the chamber music prize of the Paris Conservatoire. In the same year he won the first prize at the international Olivier Messiaen Competition. In 1977, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he became a founding member of the Ensemble InterContemporain.

Aimard has collaborated with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, André Previn, Andrew Davis, David Robertson, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. He made his American debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the age of twenty, performing the piano solo part in Olivier Messiaen's "Turangalîla-Symphonie".

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, and the eleventh and thirteenth piano études of György Ligeti. 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 and Marco Stroppa. Aimard was one of Carnegie Hall's "Perspectives" artists for the 2006-2007 concert season, where he programmed his own series of concerts. [cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/arts/music/13aima.html?ex=1188360000&en=4da5417baa7880dd&ei=5070 | title=Night of Études: Debussy, Chopin and (Surprise!) Elliott Carter | publisher="New York Times" | author=Allan Kozinn | date=13 December 2006 | accessdate=2007-08-27] [cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/arts/music/31benj.html?ex=1188360000&en=c59a75983564eb73&ei=5070ex=1188360000&en=93d85cace5736a6f&ei=5070 | title=Taking Stock: Where a Composing Prodigy Is Now, and How He Got There | publisher="New York Times" | author=Anthony Tommasini | date=31 March 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-27] [cite news | url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/arts/music/03pier.html?ex=1188360000&en=93d85cace5736a6f&ei=5070 | title=Pianistic Postcards Spanning Centuries | publisher="New York Times" | author=Anthony Tommasini | date=3 April 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-27]

In addition to his work with contemporary music, Aimard has recorded the five Beethoven piano concertos with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe [cite news | url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/review/0,,904160,00.html | title=Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos 1 -5: Aimard/Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Harnoncourt | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Andrew Clements | date=28 February 2003 | accessdate=2007-08-27] , 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. [cite news | url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6972.html | title=Deutsche Grammophon Signs Pierre-Laurent Aimard | publisher="Playbill Arts" | author=Matthew Westphal | date=23 August 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-27]

Aimard has recently extended his musical activities to conducting [cite news | url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/livereviews/story/0,,2157026,00.html | title= Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Aimard (review of Prom 54) | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Tim Ashley| date=27 August 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-27] , although he characterized his interest and gift for conducting as follows:

"To be clear: I am not a conductor, and I will never be one. This is not my way of life, and I have nothing to do with that, and have no talent for that. But if you want me to give a definition to what I do, I wouldn't say I'm a pianist - I'm a musician, and the piano happens to be my instrument. I don't like to have one function, to give me just one perspective on music. I like to make chamber music, to be part of a group, to play song accompaniments, to teach, to speak about music. In other words, to live the phenomenon on different sides." [cite news | url=http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/story/0,,2150070,00.html | title=To a beat of his own | publisher="The Guardian" | author=Tom Service | date=17 August 2007 | accessdate=2007-08-27]

In 2009, Aimard is scheduled to become the next Artistic Director of the Aldeburgh Festival in England, for an initial contract of 3 years.

References

External links

[http://sonybmgmasterworks.com/artists/pierrelaurentaimard/ Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks]