Alexandre Tharaud is a French pianist born in Paris on December 9, 1968.
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Born in Paris, Alexandre Tharaud discovered the music scene through his father, a director and singer of operettas, which were put on in theaters of Northern France, where his family spent many weekends.[1] At the initiative of his parents, Alexandre started his piano studies at age 5, and he entered Conservatory of the 14th Arrondissement where he met Carmen Taccon-Devenat—a student of Marguerite Long--who became his teacher. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris at age 14 where he won first prize for piano Germaine Mounier when he was 17 years old. With Theodor Paraskivesco, he mastered the piano, and he sought and received the advice of Claude Helffer, Leon Fleisher an Nikita Magaloff. In 1987, he won the International Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona and, a year later, the Senigallia Competition in Italy. In 1989, he received 2nd prize at the Munich International Competition. His career developed quickly in Europe as well as in North America and Japan.
He refuses to keep his piano in his house[2] because of his belief that he will begin to prefer the pleasure of improvisation to the necessity of rigorous work. He also composes but usually keeps this activity in the background.[3]