Leif Ove Andsnes

Born in Karmøy, Norway, in 1970, Leif Ove Andsnes completed his piano studies with Jiří Hlinka at the Bergen Music Conservatory; Jacques de Tiège, a Belgian piano teacher, was additionally an important influence. Andsnes’s international career began in 1989 with performances in New York and Washington, D.C. He made his debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1990 and at the London BBC Proms in 1991. Since then he has performed with the leading orchestras, from the Berliner Philharmoniker to the New York Philharmonic. Andsnes has also frequently conducted the orchestra himself, most notably when performing with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which appointed him Artistic Partner and undertook a “Beethoven Journey” with him from 2012 to 2015 that involved performing all of the composer’s piano concertos in 27 countries. This collaboration continued from 2019 to 2022 with the “Mozart Momentum 1785-86” project. In the 2023-24 season, Andsnes has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Paris, among others. He has appeared with the Dover Quartet in five North American cities; recitals featuring works by Schubert, Tveitt, and Brahms have also taken him across Europe and Japan. Andsnes’s repertoire ranges from the 18th century to modern classics and contemporary works. He has released more than 50 CDs, for which he has received the Gramophone Award seven times. His most recent release, in the fall of 2022. was of Dvořák’s Poetic Tone Pictures. In his native country, Andsnes, who is also a passionate chamber musician, directed the Risør Festival for almost 20 years and founded the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival in 2016, which will be held in 2024 under the theme of “Contrasts.” He is also a professor of piano at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Andsnes is a recipient of the Norwegian Order of St. Olav and was honored with the Peer Gynt Prize in 2007.

Lucerne Festival debut on 30 August 2002 as the ­soloist in Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto, with Pierre Boulez conducting the Berliner Philharmonike.

March 2024