Pierre Laurent Aimard, piano

The temptation to pigeonhole artists can be hard to resist. Throughout Pierre-Laurent Aimard's unique career there are landmarks which might initially invite such a labelling: winning first prize in the 1973 Messiaen Competition and his association with that composer's music ever since; being appointed at the age of just 19 by Pierre Boulez to become the Ensemble InterContemporain's solo pianist; Aimard's extremely close collaboration, since the mid-1980s, with Gyorgi Ligeti, including being chosen by the great composer to record his complete works, and being the dedicatee of several of his Etudes. Pierre-Laurent Aimard is without doubt a key figure in the new music world.

But it has always been a driving force in Aimard's professional musical life to explore as broad a range as possible of music from different ages and sources. He continually strives to illuminate the importance of historical, musical and cultural contexts as well as influences between composers both within and between generations and centuries. Through his teaching work at the Paris Conservatoire and at the Hochschule in Cologne as well as through an international program of concert/lectures, he sheds a very personal light on music of the past, present and future.

Born in Lyon, France in 1957, Pierre-Laurent Aimard studied at the Paris Conservatoire where he won four first prizes. He had the opportunity to study with Yvonne Loriod and then Maria Curcio. Now Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs throughout the world each season with the most eminent orchestras and conductors, as well as in recital and chamber music programmes in the most prestigious venues. Current invitations include, for example, Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago, Boston, and London Symphony, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Vienna, and London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Conductors with whom he is collaborating include Pierre Boulez, Myung Whun Chung, Sir Andrew Davis, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Christoph Eschenbach, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir Charles Mackerras, Kent Nagano, Sir Simon Rattle, David Robertson, Esa Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Moest, and Edo de Waart.

Recital projects take place throughout the world�s capital cities: his much-awaited debut recital at Carnegie Hall, New York took place in December 2001 to exceptional acclaim, he maintains a regular, project-based relationship there as well as with the Konzerthaus Vienna and Philharmonie Cologne. During the season 2005/6, he will be the first Artist-in-Residence at the newly opened Salle de Concerts Grande-Duchesse Josephine-Charlotte, Luxemburg. He is regularly invited to festivals such as Edinburgh, Lucerne and the BBC Proms.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard has recorded for DGG, Sony, Erato, Wergo and Lyrinx amongst others and continues to create and record for the television station Arte a series of films focusing on great composers of the 20th century. The first film in this series, featuring Pierre Boulez, was a renowned success. In recent years he has recorded very significantly for Teldec / Warner Classics, including acclaimed performances of Messiaen's Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jesus and Turangalila Symphony; the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos; Etudes and Images by Debussy; Dvorak's Piano Concerto and Ives's Sonata No.2 Concord and songs performed by Susan Graham. New releases in 2004/5 include Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Choral Fantasy with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, following on from previous successful collaborations.