Alexandre Kantorow

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 the world’s leading pianists. 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 Mäkelä, European tours with La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly plus the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Paavo Järvi, a tour of Asia with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden, and a tour to the U.S. 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 Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Kantorow performs in recital regularly across the globe, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vienna Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Paris Philharmonic, and Tokyo 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 the Musikfest and "Rencontres Musicales de Nîmes" and the Pianopolis festival in Angers, France.

In recent seasons, Kantorow has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Paris Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and Budapest Festival orchestras as well as with conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Ivan Fischer, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Sir Antonio Pappano.

Kantorow records exclusively for BIS. His recordings have received the highest critical acclaim worldwide, and most recently he was awarded the Gramophone Award in Piano for his Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert recording. In 2024, he was awarded the title of Chevalier of the National Order of Merit by the French President of the Republic, having previously been made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture. In July 2024, Kantorow performed Maurice 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.