Emil Gryesten - Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas (2023) Hi-Res

Danish pianist Emil Gryesten Jensen has established himself as one of the important classical musicians of Scandinavia. Following victories in some of the most prominent piano competitions in the Nordic countries, such as the Hamburg Steinway Piano Competition, the Malmö-Blüthner Piano Competition, the Finnish National Piano Competition, and the Nordic Piano Competition in Nyborg, many music critics, classical music professionals, and music lovers consider him one of the foremost Danish pianists of today.

His studies took place at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and at the International Piano Academy Lake Como. His notable teachers include Anne Øland and Niklas Sivelöv in his native Denmark, his teachers at the Sibelius Academy, Erik Tawaststjerna and Eero Heinonen, and, at the International Piano Academy Lake Como, the American pianist and educator William Grant Naboré. Emil Gryesten continues to receive instruction and guidance at the International Piano Academy, both from William Grant Naboré, and from other members of the faculty, including Dmitri Bashkirov and Fou Ts’ong.

His early training took place at the Gradus Music Institute in Aarhus, where his teacher was the Danish pianist Martin Lysholm Jepsen.

He has been rewarded at numerous national and international piano competitions. At the age of 15 he won the first prize at the Hamburg Steinway Klavierwettbewerb, and the following year he won the Danish Steinway Competition. In 2006 he won the first prize, a Blüthner grand piano, at the Malmö-Blüthner Piano Competition in Sweden. While a student at the Sibelius Academy he won the first prize at the Finnish National Piano Competition in Jyväskylä in March 2010. Later that year he received the first prize as well as the Audience Prize at the Nordic Piano Competition in Nyborg, Denmark. He received the Danish “Sonning” award in 2007, and the Pro Musica Award of Finland in 2011.

Emil Gryesten played his first solo recital at the age of 15, and has since then performed extensively throughout Scandinavia and Eastern and Central Europe. He appeared for the first time as a soloist with orchestra at the age of 16, performing the Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto with Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under David Riddle. He has made a number of recording productions, both studio recordings and live concerts, for the national radio stations of Denmark, Sweden, and Finland as well as for the record labels Danacord and Classico/CDKlassisk.

Emil serves as a member of the teaching faculty at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, as assistant professor ad interim.