The pianist Leif Ove Andsnes has won worldwide acclaim through his sovereign technique and profound interpretations. He performs with leading orchestras and in the world’s most renowned concert venues.
Highlights of the 2025/26 season included the world premiere of Ørjan Matre’s Piano Concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic and performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Nacional de España, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. He also returned to New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Boston Celebrity Series in recital. He performed Donghoon Shin’s Winter Sonata together with Christian Tetzlaff and toured Europe with Bertrand Chamayou.
As the inaugural artistic partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, he has directed the ensemble from the piano and has recorded two albums with Sony Classical (winning a Diapason d’Or and a Gramophone Award) as part of the project Mozart Momentum 1785/86.
For his epic project The Beethoven Journey he travelled to 108 cities in 27 countries and gave more than 230 concerts, collaborating with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. The project was documented in the film Concerto — A Beethoven Journey and in a series for Sony Classical (Prix Caecilia, BBC Music Magazine Award).
In 2004/5 he became the first Scandinavian to curate the ‘Perspectives’ Series at Carnegie Hall. Residencies have taken him to work with the Berlin Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic, and to the Wigmore Hall.
As a passionate chamber musician, he directed the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival until 2025, was artistic co-director of the Risør Chamber Music Festival from 1992 to 2010 and in 2012 was music director of the Ojai Music Festival.
His prize-winning and multi-Grammy-nominated discography features more than fifty recordings, reaching from Baroque repertory to the present day, and includes the world premiere recording of Dalbavie’s Piano Concerto and Bent Sørensen’s The Shadows of Silence. Recent releases include the album Schubert 4 Hands with Bertrand Chamayou (Warner Classics) in 2025 and solo works by Geirr Tveitt (Simax) in April 2026.
Leif Ove Andsnes was born in Karmøy in Norway and studied at the Bergen Conservatory of Music. His awards include the Peer Gynt Prize and the Gilmore Artist Award. In 2013 he was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame. He is also a Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav and holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Bergen and Oslo and the Juilliard School.
