Britta Virves

Britta Virves is a pianist and composer born in Saaremaa, Estonia. Her piano compositions are narratively clear and harmonically modern meditations on the wonder of nature, ecological webs of interconnectedness, and the people and places she calls home.

Britta was born  April 24, 1991, and grew up in Saaremaa, the largest island in Estonia. She began playing classical piano when she was seven years old and was introduced to jazz and improvisation when she was fifteen. She continued her musical journey at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and took a year off to study and live in Odense, Denmark. After that she moved to Sweden to study in Skurups Folkhögskola, a folk high school that attracts musicians from all over Europe. It would be a pivotal moment of growth in her education, where she would meet her future bandmates Jonas Bäckman and Jon Henriksson, who play drums and bass respectively in  Britta Virves Trio. 

Britta now lives in Stockholm, Sweden, and has become an acclaimed pianist and sought-after sidewoman who has worked in collaboration with a diverse group of musicians such as the Norrbotten Big Band, Genevieve Artadi, Karin Hammar, Hannes Bennich, Håkan Broström to name a few. She has also received several prestigious awards, such as Swedish Grammy Nomination for Best Jazz Album 2023, Monica Zetterlund Scholarship 2023, Tallinn Music Awards nomination for Best Jazz Album 2023, Jazz Club Fasching Society Award in 2020, STIM Stipendium in 2020 and was the winner of the Uno Naissoo Composition Contest 2016 in Estonia. 

In 2020, Britta Virves Trio played their first concert on Swedish Radio and the performance was received positively from radio listeners all across Europe. The trio decided to record its first album in Nilento Studio outside of Gothenburg in November 2021. Britta Virves debut album Juniper was released in October 2022 on Heartcore Records featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel. 

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