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The New York Times has called Leif Ove Andsnes “a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight.” With his commanding technique and searching interpretations, the celebrated Norwegian pianist has won acclaim worldwide; the Wall Street Journal has named him “one of the most gifted musicians of his generation.” He gives recitals and plays concertos in the world’s leading concert halls and with the foremost orchestras, besides being an active recording artist. An avid chamber musician, he served as co-artistic director of the Risor Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades, and was music director of California’s 2012 Ojai Music Festival.

Beethoven’s music figures prominently in Andsnes’s programming for 2012-13 and beyond, in concerto performances, recitals, and recordings. In September, 2012, Sony Classical will release the pianist’s label debut, The Beethoven Journey, on which he directs the Mahler Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard in performances of the composer’s First and Third Piano Concertos. Recorded live in Prague, the album is the cornerstone of a multi-season project of the same name, featuring Andsnes performing and recording all five of Beethoven’s piano concertos with the MCO, as well as playing them with many other top ensembles and conductors.

As “The Beethoven Journey” project enters its second year, it is Beethoven’s first four concertos that dominate Andsnes’s repertoire. He opens the New York Philharmonic’s season in September (Piano Concerto No. 3, conducted by Alan Gilbert), followed by performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 3, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Piano Concerto No.4, conducted by Riccardo Muti). Upcoming European stops on “The Beethoven Journey” include concerto engagements with the Munich Philharmonic and Thomas Dausgaard, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko, the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester and  Gianandrea Noseda, and Danish National Symphony with Andsnes directing from the keyboard. The project also takes him on the road to England and Japan with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, as well as on two European tours with the MCO, and a third with the Mahler Youth Orchestra and Herbert Blomstedt.

“The Beethoven Journey” will culminate in the 2014-15 season, when Andsnes and the MCO will reunite for “full cycle” residencies in North America, Europe, and Asia. In the meantime, ascribing to the pianist’s Beethoven “a masterly refinement that was a privilege to hear,” the New York Times expressed the hopes of many: “Now that he has found his way into Beethoven, may he keep on going.”

“The Beethoven Journey” is sponsored by the Stiftelsen Kristian Gerhard Jebsen, a Bergen-based foundation established to honour the memory of Kristian Gerhard Jebsen and his contribution to the Norwegian and international shipping business. As a foundation which had previously concentrated its funding primarily on non-profit-making medical research, SKGJ’s contribution to Andsnes represents a special commitment to an artist who has done so much for Bergen cultural life. The foundation’s three-year engagement includes sole sponsorship of the pianist’s performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Bergen International Festival.

Additional highlights of Andsnes’s 2012-13 season include a ten-stop European solo recital tour with a program of Beethoven, Bartók, Liszt, and Chopin, and duo recital tours with two leading violinists: Christian Tetzlaff in Europe and Akiko Suwanai in Japan.

During the 2011-12 season, Andsnes launched “The Beethoven Journey” with performances of Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 3 with ensembles including the BBC, Vienna, Montreal, and Boston Symphony Orchestras; the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra; and with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on a seven-city European tour crowned by appearances at the Prague Spring Festival. In Tokyo, Andsnes performed Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.3 with Herbert Blomstedt and the NHK Symphony Orchestra which earned him the NHK’s audience-chosen “Most Memorable Soloist of 2011” award. Music by Chopin, Debussy, Bartók, and Haydn were featured on a solo recital tour program in North America and Europe while the songs of Mahler and Shostakovich were the focus of a further tour with baritone Matthias Goerne. Summer highlights included curating the Ojai Music Festival in California where the New York Times observed that “the superb Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes was a natural choice to be music director.” Andsnes made his mark with creative and original programming that included such experimental works as John Luther Adams’s monumental Inuksuit

As well as performances by close musical friends and colleagues such as the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Martin Fröst, and Marc-André Hamelin.

Leif Ove Andsnes now records exclusively for Sony Classical. His previous discography comprises more than 30 discs for EMI Classics – solo, chamber and concerto releases, many of them bestsellers – spanning repertoire from Bach to the present day. He has been nominated for eight Grammys and awarded many international prizes, including five Gramophone Awards. His recordings of the music of his compatriot, Edvard Grieg, have been especially celebrated: the New York Times named Andsnes’s 2004 recording of the Piano Concerto with Mariss Jansons and the Berlin Philharmonic a “Best CD of the Year,” and the Penguin Guide awarded it a coveted “Rosette.” Like that Concerto recording, his disc of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces won a Gramophone Award. His recording of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 9 and 18 was another New York Times “Best of the Year” and Penguin Guide “Rosette” honoree. He won yet another Gramophone Award for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 with Antonio Pappano and the Berlin Philharmonic. A series of recordings of Schubert’s late sonatas, paired with lieder sung by Ian Bostridge, inspired lavish praise; the Chicago Tribune described one release as “Schubert playing of the highest order throughout.” Reviewing his CD with the world-premiere recordings of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Piano Concerto and Bent Sorensen’s The Shadows of Silence – both written for Andsnes – paired with Lutoslawski’s Piano Concerto and solo works by György Kurtág, the New York Times recognized Andsnes as “a dynamic performer of contemporary music.”

The pianist has received Norway’s most distinguished honor, Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav. In 2007, he received the prestigious Peer Gynt Prize, awarded by members of parliament to honor prominent Norwegians for their achievements in politics, sports, and culture. Andsnes has also received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award and the Gilmore Artist Award. Saluting his many achievements, Vanity Fair named Andsnes one of the “Best of the Best” in 2005.

Leif Ove Andsnes was born in Karmoy, Norway in 1970, and studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory under the renowned Czech professor Jirí Hlinka. Over the past decade, he has also received invaluable advice from the Belgian piano teacher Jacques de Tiège who, like Hlinka, has greatly influenced his style and philosophy of playing. Andsnes cites Dinu Lipatti, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Sviatoslav Richter, and Géza Anda among the pianists who have most inspired him. He currently lives in Copenhagen and Bergen, and also spends much time at his mountain home in Norway’s western Hardanger area. He is a Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Andsnes occasionally contributes written commentaries to NPR’s “Deceptive Cadence” blog, and in June 2010, he achieved one of his proudest accomplishments to date, becoming a father for the first time.

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