Pierre-Laurent Aimard was born in 1957 and trained at the Lyon Conservatoire before studying with Yvonne Loriod and Maria Curcio. In 1973 he won the chamber music prize at the Paris Conservatoire and first prize at the Olivier Messiaen Competition, and in 1977 he was invited by Pierre Boulez to become a founding member of the Ensemble InterContemporain, launching a career centered on new and twentieth-century music alongside the core piano repertoire.

Aimard is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of twentieth- and twenty-first-century piano music, having premiered works by Boulez, Stockhausen, and Ligeti and recorded Ligeti’s complete études. He has held major residencies including Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives series, artistic direction of the Aldeburgh Festival, and music directorship of the Ojai Music Festival, and he recorded Beethoven’s piano concertos with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. His interpretations of Bach and Debussy, cited in his sample repertoire, sit alongside his reputation as a champion of contemporary composers.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Laurent_Aimard