Vanessa Wagner

What Vanessa Wagner makes

Topics classical music, piano, minimalism, contemporary composition, live performances

Born in Rennes, France, Vanessa Wagner began playing the piano at the age of seven. A prodigious talent, she earned First Prize at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. In 1999, she was named “Instrumental Solo Revelation” at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. Wagner’s career reflects a personality as bold as it is inquisitive. Effortlessly bridging the classical canon with contemporary compositions. A pioneer in championing new repertoires, Wagner has spent years exploring the minimalist canon. For the InFiné label, she's recorded albums dedicated to major minimalist figures—J.Adams, Meredith Monk, B.Eno, & Ryūichi Sakamoto—as well as to emerging composers such as C.Shaw, B.Dessner, and N.Muhly. Alongside countless hours performing these works live, Wagner felt compelled by an urgent artistic calling: to fully record one of the seminal contemporary landmarks bridging the musical legacies of the 20th and 21st centuries—the twenty piano Études by Philip Glass.

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