Alexandre Kantorow has been hailed by critics as the 'young tsar of the piano' (Classica) and 'Liszt reincarnated' (Fanfare), he has received numerous other awards and is already being invited at the highest level worldwide. In 2019, at the age of 22, he was the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition as well as the Grand Prix, awarded only three times before in the competition's history.
Kantorow began his career at an early stage and, at 16, made his debut at La Folle Journée festival in Nantes, and since then, has played with many of the world’s major orchestras. Highlights in this and future seasons include appearances with Orchestre de Paris, Staatskapelle Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and tours with the Orchestre National de Toulouse, Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic, and conductors with whom he is performing include Rouvali, Yamada, Petrenko, Ivan Fischer and Pappano amongst others.
In recital Kantorow appears at major concert halls such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in their Master Pianists series, Konzerthaus Berlin, Queen Elizabeth Hall London, Philharmonie de Paris, BOZAR in Brussels, Stockholm Konserthus and at the most prestigious festivals including La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Verbier Festival and Klavierfest Ruhr. He is Artist-in-Resident at Radio France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Gstaad festival. Chamber music is also one of his great pleasures, and regularly performs with Victor Julien-Laferrière, Renaud Capuçon, Daniel Lozakovich and Matthias Goerne.
Kantorow records exclusively with BIS, to great critical acclaim. His latest recording of Brahms Solo Works received the 2022 Diapason d’Or and 2021 Trophée Radio Classique. His recordings of Saint-Saëns Concerti 3-5 and his solo disc of Brahms, Bartók and Liszt also won the Diapason d’Or and the Choc de l’Année (Classica) in 2019 and 2020 respectively. His à la Russe recital recording won numerous awards and distinctions in 2017, including Choc de l’Année (Classica), Diapason découverte (Diapason), Supersonic (Pizzicato) and CD des Doppelmonats (PianoNews). Most recently, his latest release of Saint-Saëns Concerti 1 & 2 received another Diapason d'Or as well as an editor's choice accolade from Gramophone Magazine, accompanied by a cover feature in their June 2022 edition.
Kantorow is a laureate of the Safran Foundation and Banque Populaire, and in 2019 was named 'Musical Revelation of the Year' by the Professional Critics Association. In 2020, he won the Victoires de la Musique Classique in two categories: Recording of the Year and Instrumental Soloist of the Year. In 2021 he received the Trophée d’Année from Radio Classique.
Born in France and of French-British heritage, Kantorow studied with Pierre-Alain Volondat, Igor Lazko, Franck Braley and Rena Shereshevskaya.
As of July 2022
