Jan Henrik Kayser

Norwegian pianist Jan Henrik Kayser was born on 20 February 1933 into a musical family in Bergen, studying at the music conseratory there and also in Vienna. He made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic in 1953.

In 1961 he won the Princess Astrid Music Prize and in 1978 the Grieg Prize. He was also awarded the King's Gold Medal of Merit (1987).

His forty-year collaboration with Norwegian composer Harald Sæverud (1897-1992), with many concerts at which Sæverud introduced the music which Kayser then played, resulted in a 1997 book about Sæverud and his piano music.

Kayser also played works by Beethoven, Grieg, Nielsen, Schubert and Norwegian composer Fartein Valen.

Kayser's international career stretched as far as China, Russia and the USA, and his considerable activity in Europe included concerts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jan Henrik Kayser died on 24 April 2016, aged eighty-three.