Vanessa Wagner

Vanessa Wagner, a pianist whose performances encompass everything from Mozart to joint projects with forward-thinking experimental artists, also champions animal rights and has campaigned for elected office in France.

Born June 11, 1973, in Rennes, France, she began piano studies young and entered the Conservatoire de Paris, training with Dominique Merlet and earning a first prize. She remained there to work with Jean-François Heisser until meeting Leon Fleisher, whose encouragement led her to relocate to Cadenabbia di Griante on Lake Como in Italy for lessons from Alexis Weissenberg, Murray Perahia, and Fleisher himself.

Her recording career opened in 1996 on the Lyrinx label with an album of Rachmaninov, followed by further Lyrinx releases centered on Scriabin, Mozart, and Schumann plus a Naïve collection devoted to Brahms. In 1999 she received the Instrumentalist Solo Revelation of the Year award at the Victories de la musique classique ceremonies.

From 2003 onward she recorded for the Ambroisie label, first appearing as accompanist to cellist Ophélie Gaillard on Benjamin Britten’s Cello Sonata, Op. 65. Additional solo projects for Ambroisie followed, among them Claude Debussy: Images & Estampes in 2005, before she moved to Actes Sud for a series of contemporary-music albums.

Wagner made her debut at Paris’s Bouffes du Nord theater in tandem with electronic musician Murcof; the pair sustained the partnership across several InFiné releases that began with Statea in 2016. She stood as a candidate of the Animalist Party in France’s 2017 legislative elections. In 2021 she supported pianist Wilhem Latchoumia on the album This Is America, and the following year she rejoined Murcof for Study of the Invisible on InFiné.