is a Luxembourgish classical and experimental pianist and composer who also plays the clarinet. He composes both classical and electronic music.
Born on 16 September 1981 in Luxembourg City, Tristano studied at conservatories in Luxembourg, Brussels, Riga and Paris before graduating in music at New York's Juilliard School where his teachers were Jerome Lowenthal, Bruce Brubaker and Jacob Lateiner. He has also studied with Emile Naoumoff, Rosalyn Tureck and Mikhail Pletnev.
He debuted in 2000 with the Russian National Orchestra, with which he recorded Sergey Prokofiev's 5th Piano Concerto and Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto years later. In 2004 he presented and conducted at the Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg and the Beaux-Arts in Brussels an original transcription/adaptation for piano and strings of Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. He was nominated by the Philharmonie Luxembourg for the 2008 European Concert Hall Organisation’s Carnegie Hall Rising Stars series.
He is a specialist in Baroque music and contemporary music. In 2001, Tristano founded The New Bach Players ensemble, with which he recorded Johann Sebastian Bach's complete cycle of Keyboard concertos for Accord. He has also recorded the Goldberg Variations and the French Suites, as well as Girolamo Frescobaldi's 1st book of Toccatas. Very involved in Contemporary music, too, he has recorded Luciano Berio's complete piano works and collaborated with electronic music artists such as Carl Craig and Murcof. He won the 2004 Concours International de piano XXe siècle d'Orléans.
He was a member, with Rami Khalife and Aymeric Westrich, of the Aufgang group, whose eponymous album was released in 2009. Francesco Tristano left Aufgang in February 2014. The trio also released the albums Air on Fire and Istiklaliya. Aufgang is continuing as a duo composed of Rami Khalifé and Aymeric Westrich.
