ANDSNES
Leif

• 1. Biography
• 2. Awards
• 3. Personal life

Leif Ove Andsnes is a Norwegian pianist and chamber musician. Andsnes has made several recordings for Virgin and EMI. For his "Beethoven Journey" project, Andsnes performed and recorded all five of the composer's piano concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for Sony Classical. He is represented by IMG.

Biography

Andsnes was born at Karmøy and studied with Jiří Hlinka at the Bergen Music Conservatory, making his debut in Oslo in 1987. He appeared in Britain at the Edinburgh Festival with the Oslo Philharmonic in 1989, and in the United States with the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi in 1990.

He is renowned as a champion of the works of Edvard Grieg. In 2002 he played Grieg's Piano Concerto at the Last Night of the Proms.

In November 2009, Pictures Reframed debuted at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, in which Andsnes performed Mussorgsky’s suite accompanied by five hanging panels and a rear video projection by Robin Rhode. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Apple Store in New York City.

Andsnes cites Dinu Lipatti, Sviatoslav Richter, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Géza Anda amongst his idols.

He helped found the Risør Festival of Chamber Music in 1991 and held the position of Artistic Director for the festival until 2010. In June 2012, he served as Music Director of the 2012 Ojai Music Festival.

Awards

Andsnes has won many awards, including the Hindemith Prize Frankfurt (1987), Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (1997), Gilmore Artist Award (1998), Royal Philharmonic Society Award (2000) and the Gramophone Awards (six times). He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in 2013. His recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concertos nos. 2 and 4 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra won both the Concerto Award and the Recording of the Year Award from the BBC Music Magazine in 2015.

Andsnes also received the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award in 1998. Andsnes is one of only eight pianists who have received the award.

Andsnes has been nominated for the Grammy Awards on eight occasions, but has not won any.

Personal life

Andsnes' partner is Norwegian horn player Ragnhild Lothe. They have a daughter named Sigrid, born in June 2010, and twins Ingvild and Erlend, born in May 2013.