Pianist Leif Ove Andsnes to have NU residency as part of Gimbel Lane Prize

When acclaimed pianist Leif Ove Andsnes returns to Symphony Center for concerts March 12-14 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he will have an extended stay that features a residency that month at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University.

Earlier in 2025, Bienen School of Music awarded Andsnes its $75,000 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance. Along with the cash award, the prize includes a public recital and two non-consecutive residencies at the Bienen School of Music.

“I am very honored to receive the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize,” Andsnes said in a statement. “I am very much looking forward to spending some time at Northwestern University and connecting with the students there.”

During his first residency in March 2026, Andsnes will participate with students and faculty in master classes, chamber-music coaching and question-and-answer sessions. He will present a public recital on March 9 as part of the school’s the Skyline Piano Artist Series at Galvin Recital Hall. Andsnes’s second Bienen School residency will occur in February 2027.

“From his award-winning and captivating recordings to his artistic partnerships with many of the most highly respected musical institutions around the globe, Leif Ove Andsnes represents the highest level of artistry,” said Jonathan Bailey Holland, dean of the Bienen School of Music. “We are pleased to recognize him with the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize and delighted that he will have the opportunity to work with Bienen students.”

Established in 2005, the biennial Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance honors pianists who have achieved the highest levels of national and international recognition. Previous winners include Richard Goode (2006), Stephen Hough (2008), Yefim Bronfman (2010), Murray Perahia (2012), Garrick Ohlsson (2014), Emanuel Ax (2016), Marc-André Hamelin (2018), Sir András Schiff (2021) and Maria João Pires (2023).

The New York Times has described Andsnes as “a pianist of magisterial elegance, power and insight,” and the Wall Street Journal has named him as “one of the most gifted musicians of his generation.”

The Norwegian-born pianist has won acclaim worldwide, performing recitals and concertos in the world’s leading concert halls and with foremost orchestras. An active recording artist, he has a discography consists of more than 50 titles, spanning repertoire from the Baroque to the present day. He has received 11 Grammy nominations, seven Gramophone Awards and many other international honors.

An avid chamber musician, Andsnes 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 2012 Ojai Music Festival. As first artistic partner of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Andsnes led the ensemble from the keyboard in two multi-season projects, “The Beethoven Journey” and “Mozart Momentum 1785/86.”

He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in 2013 and has received honorary doctorates from New York’s Juilliard School and Norway’s University of Bergen. The winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award and the Gilmore Artist Award, Andsnes also has received Norway’s Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and the prestigious Peer Gynt Prize.

He has curated Carnegie Hall’s “Perspectives” series, been the subject of the London Symphony Orchestra’s “Artist Portrait Series” and undertaken season-long artistic residencies with the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony.