Alexandre Tharaud is a rare artist: an eclectic pianist, writer, and artistic director whose passion for music fuels a creativity that spans from baroque to contemporary repertoire.

After the undisputed success of his Goldberg Variations on both record and screen (the film won the 2016 ECHO Klassik award in the “Music-DVD-Production of the Year” category), the French artist turned to Rachmaninov for his most recent recording, featuring the Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alexander Vedernikov.

In the 2017/2018 season, not one but two recordings were released on the Erato label: Barbara, a tribute conceived by Alexandre and presented at the Philharmonie de Paris in October 2017, and the Brahms Cello Sonatas with cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, which were featured in two European tours celebrating the album’s release. Highlights of the season included the first European tour of the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, during which Alexandre performed Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand, a series of solo recitals across North America (Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Salle Bourgie…), and a tour in Japan including a performance with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra.

Further concerts and tours took place across France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Münchener Kammerorchester, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, and Orchestra Verdi.

Contemporary music holds a significant place in Alexandre Tharaud’s repertoire. He premiered the Left, Alone concerto for the left hand by Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen with the WDR Symphony Orchestra in 2016, later reprising it with the CBSO, DR SymfoniOrkestret, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. This was followed by Kuleshov by Oscar Strasnoy, for piano and chamber orchestra, premiered in Canada in June 2017 with Les Violons du Roy. He is also the dedicatee of works including Outre-Mémoire, Le Visage – Le Cœur, and L’Oiseau Innumérable by Thierry Pécou, Gérard Pesson’s piano concerto (2012), and three solo piano cycles: Hommages à Rameau, Hommage à Couperin, and Piano Song.

He regularly performs in the world’s greatest concert halls: Philharmonies of Cologne, Essen, and Warsaw; Victoria Hall (Geneva); Muziekgebouw and Concertgebouw (Amsterdam); BOZAR (Brussels); Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London); Auditorio Nacional (Madrid); Santa Cecilia (Rome); Tonhalle (Zurich); Casino (Bern); Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Paris); Opéra de Versailles; Rudolfinum (Prague); Musikverein (Vienna). In the Americas: Carnegie Hall (New York), Symphony Hall (Boston), Walt Disney Hall (Los Angeles), Kennedy Center (Washington), and Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires). He also performs regularly in China, South Korea, and Japan (Hoam Art Hall – Seoul, Hyogo Performing Arts Center, Oji Hall and Suntory Hall – Tokyo), and at major festivals such as the BBC PROMS, Edinburgh Festival, Gergiev Festival (Rotterdam), Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d’Anthéron, Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Ludwigsburg, Ruhr Piano Festival, December Nights (Moscow), Rimini, Domaine Forget, and Lanaudière.

At the Philharmonie de Paris, Alexandre Tharaud is invited each year to curate a weekend of concerts (Domaine Privé, Satie, Rachmaninov…).

He has performed as soloist with prestigious orchestras worldwide: in the Americas with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra; in Asia with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, Japan New Philharmonic, Kansai Philharmonic, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra. In France: Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, and Orchestre National de Lyon. In Germany: Münchener Kammerorchester, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, and hr-Sinfonieorchester. Elsewhere: London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Bolshoi Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester. He has worked under the direction of Lionel Bringuier, Bernard Labadie, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Georges Prêtre, Marc Minkowski, Stéphane Denève, Claus Peter Flor, Leo Hussain, David Zinman, Juanjo Mena, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

His extensive discography includes concertos by Haydn, Mozart, and Bach (with Les Violons du Roy), Autographe (a collection of encores), Le Bœuf sur le Toit, Scarlatti, Journal Intime (Chopin) for Erato. For harmonia mundi: Rameau: Nouvelles Suites, the complete works of Ravel (awarded Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros, Diapason d’Or de l’Année, CHOC du Monde de la Musique, and many more distinctions), Bach: Italian Concertos, Couperin, Satie (Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2008), and Chopin (Complete Waltzes and Twenty-Four Preludes).

In 2014, director Raphaëlle Aellig-Régnier devoted a beautiful portrait film to him, Le Temps Dérobé. Two books have also been published: Piano intime (2014), a conversation with journalist Nicolas Southon about his discography, and Montrez-moi vos mains (2017), a deeply personal collection of stories from his life as a soloist.

Alexandre Tharaud performed at the Saint-Denis Festival in 2020 with Angélique Kidjo, Julie Fuchs, and Ibrahim Maalouf, and in 2015 in a recital at the Maison d’éducation de la Légion d’Honneur.