Anna Ueland is the winner of Usbl Jazztalent 2024

12. August, 2024

Ahead of the Oslo Jazz Festival's sold-out opening concert with Masqualero at the Opera, this year's Usbl Jazztalent prize was awarded by Usbl's director of commercial development, Hallvard Bratberg.

This year, the prize is awarded to the talented pianist Anna Ueland. The prize consists of NOK 60,000, a diploma designed by Christopher Nielsen and a concert as part of the main program at the Oslo Jazz Festival in 2025.

This year's winner has distinguished himself as a fearless, energetic and versatile musician with many irons in the fire. She is originally from Valdres, but now lives in Trondheim, where she has recently completed her bachelor's degree in performing piano at the jazz department at NTNU. Anna's playing is characterized by great empathy, contagious joy and creative antics, and she moves seamlessly between everything from free jazz to pop. With a background in mathematics and programming, she too has developed a strong interest in synthesizers and electronics, and you can often see her behind a pile of cables and keyboards of various sizes. At this year's festival, she plays with the free jazz quintet Science Fair, the indie jazz band Vårknipa, the septet Monstera and not least in last year's award winner Emil Bø's band.

We look forward to welcoming Anna Ueland back with an award-winning concert at the Oslo Jazz Festival 2025!

Photo: Matija Puzar