Alexandre Kantorow, called ‘Liszt reincarnated,’ extends his winning ways

French pianist Alexandre Kantorow might be the only classical-music artist to have shared a stage with rapper Snoop Dogg and pop vocalists Lady Gaga and Celine Dion.

It happened at the Paris Olympics this summer when Kantorow, hailed as “the young tsar of the piano” and “Liszt reincarnated,” gave a wonderful yet waterlogged performance of Ravel’s Jeux d’eau during the opening ceremony as the rain drenched participants and patrons.

Performing uncovered on a Paris bridge, Kantorow powered through the appropriately chosen Jeux d’eau, variously translated as “Fountains,” “Playing Water” or “Water Games.” Meanwhile social media users expressed concern for Kantorow’s equally unprotected Steinway. 

And so the Games began in spectacular fashion, as French theater director Thomas Jolly led an opening ceremony unlike anything the Games had seen before, unfolding along the Seine with all manner of top-tier personalities, also including athletes Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Coco Gauff.

Before his Olympian feat, Gramophone magazine had described Kantorow as “the real deal, a fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm and innate stylistic mastery.”

Kantorow, now 27, has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and Budapest Festival orchestras and with conductors such as Klaus Mäkelä, Manfred Honeck, Jaap van Zweden, Ivan Fischer, Vasily Petrenko and Sir Antonio Pappano. Kantorow will make his Orchestra Hall debut when he appears in a Symphony Center Presents recital on Feb. 2 (including two works by Liszt).

In 2019, at age 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. In 2024, he won the Gilmore Artist Award, receiving $50,000 to spend as he wishes and $250,000 on anything that furthers his career or artistry over a four-year period.

Kantorow is still deliberating over how to spend the money but he hopes to create something “that lasts, that is concrete.” He is thinking about a film project, or creating a space where musicians could practice and gather.

Past Gilmore winners have included Igor Levit, Kirill Gerstein, Ingrid Fliter, Piotr Anderszewski and Leif Ove Andsnes.

Talent runs in the family. His father is violinist and conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow, who won 10 major international prizes during the 1960s, including the Carl Flesch Competition and the Geneva International Competition. 

He and his father also have worked together. Jean-Jacques appears on his son’s disc "Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 3-5" (2019, BIS).

Pierre van der Westhuizen, director of the Gilmore Festival and awards, has said of the pianist, “I first heard Kantorow in person in late 2019 performing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. His powerfully passionate and charming approach was thrilling in every respect; full of nuance and color. He had a sensitivity that was hair-raising, but massive power when called for. Kantorow remains one of the few pianists working today who leaves me quite breathless and feeling musically fulfilled in every way.

"In all the performances I’ve heard since, I found him inquisitive and musically curious, and he gave the impression that the musical discovery is, for him, a personal discovery and lifelong journey. ... He embodies every aspect of what we are looking for in a Gilmore Artist, and I am thrilled and honored to welcome him to this select and illustrious slate of pianists who continue to make enormous impact on the musical world.”

Kantorow said in turn, “For an artist at the beginning of his musical journey, this support feels like such a gift. Taking the next steps will be very exciting and challenging, as I set out to find the right creative musical choices that reflect the prestige and trust which was put in me."