Alexandre Kantorow
About this Artist
In 2019, at the age of 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 recognized once again when he received the esteemed Gilmore Artist Award, solidifying his place as one of the world’s leading pianists. Gramophone 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 2025/26 season include a tour of Japan with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä, European tours with the Filarmonica della Scala and Riccardo Chailly and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Paavo Järvi, a tour of Asia with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Jaap van Zweden, and a tour of the US with the Philharmonia and Marin Alsop, which includes a performance at Carnegie Hall. He also embarks on a major recital tour of North America, makes his debut with the San Francisco Symphony, and returns to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestras.
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’s 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 La Musikfest and Rencontres Musicales de Nîmes, and he is artistic director of the Pianopolis festival in Angers, France.
In recent seasons, Kantorow has performed with leading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and Budapest Festival orchestras and with conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Iván Fischer, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Antonio Pappano.
Alexandre Kantorow records exclusively for BIS. His recordings have received critical acclaim worldwide, and recently he was awarded the Gramophone Award in the Piano category for his Brahms and Schubert recording. In 2024, he was awarded the title of Chevalier of the National Order of Merit by the President of France, having previously been made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture. In July 2024, Kantorow performed Ravel’s Jeux d’eau at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games.
Kantorow studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Frank Braley, and Rena Shereshevskaya.