Anna Kuvaja

The Finnish pianist Anna Kuvaja is a versatile musician who performs as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player and has partnered a great variety of artists. She is also renowned as a fortepianist and on the other hand has given first performances of several contemporary compositions. Anna came to public attention with her critically acclaimed debut recital in Helsinki in 2008 and has given numerous concerts in her home country and abroad since then, as well as recording for YLE (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) and appearing at many festivals. Since 2010 Anna has complemented her performing with educational work at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, where she is highly regarded as a teacher.

Anna began playing the piano in Kuhmo in eastern Finland and continued her studies at the renowned Espoo music school under Katarina Nummi-Kuisma at the age of 16. At the Sibelius Academy her teachers were Tuija Hakkila and Liisa Pohjola, and she rounded off her education with masterclasses in piano and chamber music, as an exchange student at the CNSM in Paris with Henri Barda, and in the orchestra academy of the Zurich Opera from 2005 until 2007.

In 2016 Anna published her first solo album, Fluvial, on the Alba label. The record received excellent reviews and was awarded five stars in BBC Music Magazine, which praised “a stunning debut disc… powerful Schubert.”

Anna was the recipient of one of the Finnish state’s prestigious artists’ grants in 2017.