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in norwegian
The young Norwegian pianist Steffen Horn has made his mark as one of the principle representatives for a new generation of pianists in the international league. He gives concerts all over the world, and is highly acclaimed by his audiences and reviewers.
- By this time the audience realises that Steffen Horn is a young virtuoso with a particular sensitivity. One is swept along by the unabashed exuberance, the glorious musicality of his touch.
(Newspaper Al-Ahram reviewing Steffen's performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto with Cairo Symphony Orchestra in 2007)
Steffen Horn was born in 1976 and grew up in Haugesund and Karmøy, at the west coast of Norway. He started playing the piano at the age of six, and was through many years taught by Astrid Ellingsen at the Haugesund Music School. After achieving prize in the national piano competition in 1993, 16 year-old Steffen went to the Czeck piano teacher Professor Jiri Hlinka in Bergen
He studied with Prof. Hlinka at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo, where he also attained his soloist diploma with honours, in 2002.
In addition to beeing prize winner in the Norwegian youth piano championship, he won second prize in the prestigious Smetana international piano competition in the Czech Republic, 1996. He was also aworded with a special prize for best performance of classical sonata.
Since the year of 2000 Steffen Horn has been one of the Norwegian “Statoil Musicians”, a hounorable sponsorship title shared by the other Norwegian world class artists Truls Mørk and Leif Ove Andsnes. Steffen’s debut performance at the Oslo university auditorium in 2002, and the London Debut at the Wigmore Hall the same year, received great ovations from the audience and the press.
Steffen has performed as a soloist with several Symphony Orchestras, including the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Oslo Philarmonic, Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra Simon Bolivar in Venezuela. Under the direction of conductors such as Terje Boye Hansen, Stephan Barratt-Due, Ingar Bergby, Rolf Gupta, Susanna Mälkki, Kjell Seim and Alfredo Rugeles, Steffen has performed Piano Concertos with a wide range of stiles. From Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg and Rachmaninov, to the Norwegian composer Geirr Tveitt.
His fifth CD-release “KONSERT” (published in 2007 on the Norwegian label 2L) has given him international attention in both Europe, USA and China. This is a live recording of a solo recital at the Gamle Logen in Oslo, and his performance of Rachmaninov, Grieg and Prokofiev is compared to Richter and Gilels, two of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century.
Steffen Horn has given concerts in Norway, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Russia, Iran, Angola, Egypt, China and Venezuela.
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