2024 Gilmore Artist Alexandre Kantorow Tours United States, October - November 2025

"exemplar of a new generation" - The New York Times

PHOTO: Alexandre Kantorow (Credit: Sasha Gusov)

KALAMAZOO, MI (10.20.25) — Pianist Alexandre Kantorow, winner of the 2024 Gilmore Artist Award, appears throughout the United States in both concerto performances and in recital from late October to early November 2025. American audiences have a rare opportunity to experience Kantorow’s artistry, sensitivity, and technical prowess on full display. In these concerts, the 27-year-old French pianist will perform the fiendishly difficult Third Piano Concerto by Sergei Prokofiev with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by the revered Marin Alsop (Oct 26, Pennsylvania Oct 28, Carnegie Hall, New York City), as well as with the San Francisco Symphony led by Karina Cannelakis (Nov 6-8, San Francisco). 

Marking his Kennedy Center debut, Kantorow will perform a one-night only solo performance (Nov 1, Washington, D.C.) featuring works by Bach, Liszt, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, and Brahms. The tour follows Kantorow’s final album release in his series of Brahms sonatas, Brahms and Schubert (BIS Records): the winner of the 2025 Gramophone Piano Award. “With sound as wide ranging and immediate as that on the previous two volumes, this release further consolidates Kantorow’s standing among the leading pianists of his generation.” (Gramophone)
 
Alexandre Kantorow is the ninth and the youngest Gilmore Artist Award recipient, following in the footsteps of internationally renowned pianists such as Igor Levit, Kirill Gerstein, and Leif Ove Andsnes. The Award is presented to an exceptional pianist regardless of age or nationality. A new Gilmore Artist is named every four years, following a rigorous and confidential selection process. The pianist selected as the Gilmore Artist Award receives $300,000 — $50,000 in cash to be used at the artist's discretion and an additional $250,000 for projects and activities that will enhance his or her musicianship and career.
 

In 2019, aged 22, Alexandre Kantorow became the first French pianist to win the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, along with the rarely awarded Grand Prix, granted only three times in the competition’s history. In 2024, he was recognized once again when he received the esteemed Gilmore Artist Award, solidifying his place as one the world’s leading pianists. Gramophone magazine has described him as “the real deal, a fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm and innate stylistic mastery”. He is in demand at the highest level across the globe, performing in the world’s finest halls both in recital and with the most renowned orchestras and conductors.
 
Other highlights of Kantorow’s 25/26 season include a tour of Japan with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mäkelä, European tours with the Filarmonica della Scala and Chailly and the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Paavo Järvi, a tour of Asia with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and van Zweden, and a return to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestras.
 
Kantorow performs in recital regularly across the globe, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vienna Konzerthaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Tokyo Suntory Hall, and at festivals such as Edinburgh, Salzburg, La Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Verbier, Rheingau and Klavierfest Ruhr. Chamber music is one his great pleasures and he performs regularly with artists such as Janine Jansen, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon and Matthias Goerne. With Liya Petrova and Aurélien Pascal he is co-artistic director of the Musikfest and "Rencontres Musicales de Nîmes" and the Pianopolis festival in Angers. In recent seasons, Kantorow has performed with many of the world’s finest orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic and Budapest Festival orchestras and with conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Ivan Fischer, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Sir Antonio Pappano.
 

Created in 1989 to honor the legacy of businessman and philanthropist Irving S. Gilmore, The Gilmore is the premier institution in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, presenting and awarding extraordinary piano artistry. The Gilmore has presented 16 piano festivals, commissioned over 40 new works for piano, and awarded over $3 million as part of its internationally renowned Gilmore Artists Award for both classical and jazz pianists. Based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, The Gilmore hosts its annual (previously biennial) Gilmore Piano Festival April 30-May 10, 2026, and continues to impact the lives of thousands of area children and adults through its year-round community engagement and music education programs including summer camps, music therapy, and much more. 
 

ALEXANDRE KANTOROW’S US TOUR
 
October 26, 2025, at 4:00 p.m. Pennsylvania debut
Philharmonia Orchestra in the USA, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26
Marin Alsop (conductor)
 
October 28, 2025, at 8:00 p.m.
Philharmonia Orchestra in the USA, Carnegie Hall, New York, New York
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26
Marin Alsop (conductor)
 
November 1, 2025, 3:00 p.m. Washington, D.C. debut
Solo Recital, The Kennedy Center, Washington, District of Columbia
Bach/Liszt: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen S. 179
Medtner: Piano Sonata No.1 in F minor, Op. 5
Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No.1 in D minor, Op.28
Brahms: Chaconne in D minor for piano left hand (after Bach BVW.1016)


November 6-8, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. San Francisco Symphony debut
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, California, 
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, Op.26
Karina Cannelakis (conductor)