Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Renowned for his dedication to contemporary chamber music and exceptional interpretations of Gyorgy Ligeti and Beethoven, French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard was born in Lyon in 1957. He won two major awards as a young man -- the chamber music prize from the Paris Conservatoire and the Olivier Messiaen Competition -- and debuted in the U.S. with the Chicago Symphony playing Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie. Over Aimard's illustrious career he has debuted works by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and Ligeti; was a member of the Ensemble InterContemporain; and collaborated with Andre Previn, Charles Dutoit and Seiji Ozawa.