Ellen Jansson - Pianist

Hailed as "a major talent" after her Carnegie Hall debut with Prokofiev Third Piano Concerto, Irish pianist Ellen Jansson is quickly establishing herself as one of Ireland’s most versatile and exciting young musicians. She has appeared as soloist with the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Esker Festival Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, as well as giving solo and chamber performances around Europe.

Under the guidance of Mary Beattie at Cork School of Music, Ellen graduated first in her class and Taught MA Student-of-the-Year in 2020 before continuing her studies in collaborative piano with Barbara Moser at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. She is also a past pupil of Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, where she was the winner of the Chetham’s Yamaha Piano Competition. She was awarded a Flax Trust bursary at Clandeboye Festival 2016 and was a finalist in the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship 2017. Ellen was awarded the second prize in the Irish Freemasons Young Musician of the Year 2018 and was also recipient of the Cork Orchestral Society Emerging Artist Award that year.

An avid chamber musician, Ellen’s collaborations have included performances with the ConTempo String Quartet, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ficino Ensemble, Kirkos Ensemble, Vienna Ensemble, and the Winds of Change Quintet. She has been répétiteur for the International Music Academy Orpheus, the Hans Staud Music Award, Oper Burg Gars, and ProChoro Wien, and has performed at the New Ross Piano Festival, Westport Chamber Music Festival, Killaloe Chamber Music Festival, Ortús Chamber Music Festival, Waterford Chamber Music Festival, and the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, among others. Her performance with flautist Miriam Kaczor at the Castleconnell Autumn Concert Series 2022 was recorded for national broadcast by RTÉ Lyric FM. In 2024 she spent a month in residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity Interplay programme, where she performed with José Franch-Ballester, Beverley Johnston, and Joel Brennan. 

A passionate advocate for the performance and promotion of music written by women, she has appeared several times at the ‘Finding a Voice’ Festival since its launch in 2018, including curating and performing a concert of solo and chamber works by Canadian composer Alexina Louie in 2019, and giving the first complete Irish performance of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s Das Jahr in 2021.

Ellen currently studies with Hugh Tinney on the Doctor in Music Performance programme at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and Trinity College Dublin, where she is an 1848 Scholar and recipient of the SALT Bursary. Since 2020, she is Coach Accompanist to the MA in Classical String Performance at the Irish World Academy of Music, University of Limerick.