| Biography | Alexandre Kantorow (born 20 May 1997) is a French pianist. Described by Gramophone as a "fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm" and by Fanfare as "Liszt reincarnated", he won the first prize, gold medal and Grand Prix at the 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019. With this win, Kantorow became the first French winner in the history of the competition.
Kantorow was born in Clermont-Ferrand to a family of musicians; his father is the violinist and conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow and his mother is also a violinist. He began to study piano at the age of five at the conservatory of Pontoise. At the age of 11, Kantorow began studies with Pierre-Alain Volondat, who was the winner of the 1983 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium, and continued training with Igor Lazko at the Schola Cantorum de Paris, as well as with Frank Braley and Haruko Ueda. Kantorow currently studies with Rena Shereshevskaya, who was also the teacher of Lucas Debargue, at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.
In 2023 Kantorow won the prestigious $300,000 Gilmore Artist Award.
On 26 July 2024 he performed the music of Maurice Ravel during the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. |