The Norwegian pianist Anne Kaasa has been described by the French musical magazine Le Monde de la Musique as “a pianist that stands out in the crowded world of soloists by the depth of her interpretations, the fluidity of her playing, as well as the precision and the delicacy of her touch”.
Anne Kaasa studied at the Conservatory of Trondheim, and then in Paris with Edson Elias, having also received the precious orientation of the Russian pianist Vladimir Viardo. In 1990, she won the “Teresa Vieira Prize”, in Portugal, and since then she has been living in Lisbon. She teaches at the National Conservatory of Lisbon. Her activity as a soloist has brought her to play at prestigious venues like Wigmore Hall (London), the Grande Auditório of the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Grande Auditório of the Belém Cultural Center (Lisbon), the Auditorio Nacional (Madrid), the Scheremetev Palace (St. Petersburg), the Ateneu Roman (Bucarest), Gamle Logen (Oslo), Troldhaugen (Bergen), the Liszt Museum (Budapest) among others, and in International Music Festivals like Ljubliana Festival, Nuits pianistiques de Aix-en-Provence, Festival de Maputo, Vestfold Festspillene, Festival da Costa do Estoril, Festival da Madeira and Festival de Coimbra.
She has performed concertos with many orchestras, including the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Madrid Community Orchestra, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Porto National Orchestra, Baden-Baden Philharmonic, Craiova Symphony, Granada Orchestra, Philharmonic of Timisoara, Lisbon Sinfonieta, Florence Chamber Orchestra, Flemish Chamber Orchestra and National Symphony of Moldavia, in collaboration with conductors like José Ramón Encinar, Laurent Petitgirard, Dirk Vermeulen, Yu Feng, Marc Tardu, Ernst Schelle, Georgi Costin, Flávio Chamis, Johannes Willig, Cesário Costa, Ovidiu Balan and Valentin Doni.
As a chamber musician, Anne Kaasa has enjoyed partnerships with musicians such as the cellist Truls Mørk and the violinists Arve Tellefsen, Aníbal Lima and Ragnhild Hemsing. She plays in the Trio Tagus with the violinist Stefan Schreiber and the cellist Marco Pereira.
With a repertory that extends from Bach to contemporary music Anne Kaasa has collaborated with a large number of composers. Several of them have dedicated compositions to her, including Philippe Fénelon, Clotilde Rosa and Sérgio Azevedo. In 2002, with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and the conductor José Ramon Encinar, she gave the world premier of the Concerto Nº 2, which was dedicated to her by Philippe Fénelon. In 2004 she performed the premier performance of “…von fremden ländler…” by António Pinho Vargas, for piano solo and orchestra, with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and the conductor Yu Feng.
Anne Kaasa has recorded for national radios and televisions in France, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Norway, Portugal and Moldavia. Her CD recordings include works of Grieg and Ravel for the labels Grave (Paris), EMI Classics and Saphir (Paris), and have received enthusiastic reviews by the press (Le Monde de la Musique, Diapason and Repértoire, in Paris, La Stampa, in Rome and Aftenposten in Oslo). In the field of contemporary music she has recorded piano works by the Portuguese composer Clotilde Rosa for MISO Records. Her recording of Debussy (Saphir, 2011) has received excellent reviews in Radio France and in French musical press, as well as the distinction 5 Diapasons in the prestigious music magazine Diapason.