Håvard Gimse was born in 1966, and has established himself as one of Norway´s leading pianists. He graduated from the Norwegian State Academy of Music with the highest marks, continuing his studies at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Academy of Music in Berlin where he gained his Diploma in 1995. Since 1990 he has studied with professor Jiri Hlinka in Bergen and in Oslo.

Håvard Gimse has concertized throughout Europe, in the United States, in Japan and in South America. His New York Lincoln Center orchestra debut in 1994 with the Riverside Symphony was given a splendid New York Times review. Excellent reviews have been assigned him for his accounts as soloist with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra on tour in Great Britain, with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on tour to Salzburg, Innsbruck and Prague, the Janacek Philharmonic to Tokyo, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Norwegian Youth Symphony to Hannover and Berlin. Equally succesful were his London South Bank debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, his concerts with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Wales SO, Prague Symphony Orchestra and other major orchestras throughout Norway, Sweden and Denmark. He has worked with conductors Young, Vronsky, Berglund, Segerstam, Talmi, Schönwand,Hager, Kukal, Ruud, Stringer, Engeset and Iona Brown.

Festival engagements include Valdemossa Chopin Festival, Bergen International Festival, chamber music festivals in Oslo, Risør, Stavanger, international festival and recital engagements in France, Mexico, USA, Scotland, Germany and Norway. Since 1986, he has been an annual guest at the Bergen International Festival. In 1996 he perfomed the Grieg:Pianoconcerto at the festivals´ closing concert. He has given recitals in London Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Schauspielhaus Berlin, in Barcelona and in the Oslo International Master Pianist Series. His Washington D.C. recital debut will be in December 2001.

Håvard Gimse has won a number of significant Norwegian and International music awards. In 1987 he won the first prize in the European piano competition "Jugend Musiziert" in Frankfurt. In 1995 he was awarded the Steinway Prize in Berlin and in 1996 Gimse received the prestigious Grieg Prize.

Håvard Gimse has made recordings and concerts with Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz and violist Lars Anders Tomter, concertizing with eminent colleagues mezzosoprano Randi Stene, violinists Arve Tellefsen and Henning Kraggerud, cellist Truls Mørk, trumpeter Ole Edvard Antonsen and cellist Øystein Birkeland. Gimse´s recordings for Simax, Naxos, Naim and Chandos have received excellent international reviews.

Recent issues include superbly reviewed complete piano solo works by Sibelius, piano-concertos by Tveitt for NAXOS, (Gramophone June 2001 «Editor´s Choice»), Chopin pianoworks for NAIM (claimed by international phono press to be «..an issue to rival the Masters», and Grieg Violinsonatas with Arve Tellefsen for SONY. Gimse shares his concert activities with a lectorate at the State Academy of Music in Oslo.