Leif Ove Andsnes, piano

The New York Times calls Leif Ove Andsnes “a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight,” and the Wall Street Journal names him “one of the most gifted musicians of his generation.” With his commanding technique and searching interpretations, the celebrated Norwegian pianist has won acclaim worldwide, playing concertos and recitals in the world’s leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, while building an esteemed and extensive discography. An avid chamber musician, he is the founding director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, was co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades, and served as music director of California’s Ojai Music Festival in 2012. He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in July 2013, and has received honorary doctorates from New York’s Juilliard School and Norway’s Universities of Bergen and Oslo.

In 2023-24, Andsnes performed Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, New World Symphony and London Symphony Orchestra, as well as on a Japanese tour with the NHK Symphony. Other upcoming concert highlights include performances of Rachmaninov’s Third with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Danish National Symphony and Orchestre de Paris. He also embarked on high-profile solo recital tours of Japan and Europe, before joining the Dover Quartet for Brahms and Dohnányi piano quintets on a five-city North American tour, bookended by dates at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. Leif Ove Andsnes: The Complete Warner Classics Edition 1990-2010, a 36-CD retrospective, is due for release in October.

Andsnes’s discography comprises more than 50 titles, many of them bestsellers. Spanning repertoire from the Baroque to the present day, they have been recognized with eleven Grammy nominations, seven Gramophone Awards and many other international prizes, while his recordings of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 9 and 18 were both named “Best CD of the Year” by the New York Times. Capturing his two major multi-season projects with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, his Sony Classical series A Beethoven Journey and Mozart Momentum 1785/86 were honored with multiple Gramophone Awards, Belgium’s Prix Caecilia and BBC Music’s “Recording of the Year.” Andsnes’s other accolades include the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award, the Gilmore Artist Award, and Norway’s Peer Gynt Prize and Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. He was the first Scandinavian to curate Carnegie Hall’s “Perspectives” series and has been Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic, Artist-in-Residence of the New York Philharmonic, and the subject of a London Symphony Orchestra Artist Portrait Series.

Leif Ove Andsnes was born in Karmøy, Norway in 1970, and studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory. He is currently an Artistic Adviser for the Prof. Jirí Hlinka Piano Academy in Bergen, where he lives with his partner and their three children.