Jens Elvekjær, Piano
Biography
Jens Elvekjær, a native of Copenhagen, won top prizes in some of Europe’s most prestigious international competitions, including the Brahms Piano Competition, Austria—1st prize; the Scandinavian Piano Competition, Denmark—2nd prize (the highest awarded); and the Ferrol Piano Competition, Spain—2nd prize.
One of Scandinavia's leading young pianists and Denmark's first Steinway Artist, Elvekjær represented Denmark at the First Scandinavian Piano Festival and has performed widely across Europe, Asia and North America in such venues as the National Gallery (Washington, DC); Tivoli Concert Hall (Copenhagen); Tokyo’s Musashino Hall; Amsterdam’s Beurs van Berlage, the Austrian National Library (Vienna); the Casals Festival, Prades (France); the Bergen and Trondheim Festivals (Norway); the Umeå Kammermusik Festival (Sweden); and the Korsholm and Kuhmo Festivals (Finland).
Elvekjaer has performed as soloist with all the major Danish orchestras including the Danish National Orchestra; the Leipzig Chamber Orchestra (Germany), the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen, l'Orchestre Syrinx (France), and many others. He has toured in Europe as soloist with Danish and German orchestras, and has been reengaged to perform as soloist with the Danish National Orchestra in Denmark and Sweden in 2008.
Elvekjær's début CD (music by Debussy, Ravel and Franck) was nominated as Best Solo Album in the 2007 Danish Music Awards, and was hailed as “an extraordinary release . . . performances radiant with talent” by Denmark’s foremost newspaper, Politiken.
Elvekjær has broadcast on the BBC, National Public Radio (USA), Danish Radio, Korean Broadcasting Systems, Austrian Radio, Hessischer Rundfunk, ARD, Deutschland Radio Berlin, NRK, SR, and RAI.
Elvekjær is the pianist of the successful piano trio, Trio con Brio Copenhagen, which received the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award. The award includes a recording contract and an extensive tour of 20 major U.S. venues including Carnegie Hall. The trio won top prizes in many other competitions including ARD (Munich); Premio Vittorio Gui (Florence); Trondheim Chamber Music Competition; Danish Radio Competition; and the prestigious “Allianz Prize” for Best Ensemble in at Germany’s Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Elvekjær studied in Århus, Denmark; Cologne, Germany; and in the Vienna Conservatory and Salzburg Mozarteum, Austria. His teachers included John Damgaard, K.H. Kämmerling, Leonid Brumberg, Lazar Berman, Ferenc Rados, and the Alban Berg Quartett.
Trio Con Brio Copenhagen
Jens Elvekjær plays numerous concerts with Trio con Brio Copenhagen. For further information look
http://www.copenhagenartists.com/artists/trioconbrio/calendar
Copenhagen Artists represents Jens Elvekjær world wide, except in USA.