photo by Daniel Nielsen

Copenhagen-based pianist Sandra Mogensen is equally at home in two worlds: performing as a solo pianist and co-performing with singers in recital. She has played in concert in both capacities in Canada, the United States, Denmark, Latvia, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Austria. Sandra is also well-known as a vocal coach and piano pedagogue.

Sandra’s first CD recording (2001) was of Schubert’s cycle of 24 songs, Winterreise, with Germany-based Canadian bass Paul Sketris. The two artists have been friends since childhood, when their first musical collaborations included playing piano duets, singing the Latvian folk songs of their common heritage, and playing in the same high school jazz band. The Winterreise recording was produced by Anton Kwiatkowski and was recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.

Sandra returned to the Glenn Gould Studio to record her first solo album in December 2006 for a 2007 release in conjunction with the Edvard Grieg centenary. SANDRA MOGENSEN: Piano Music of Edvard Grieg, produced by Earl McCluskie, was warmly received and praised. A second disc of Grieg’s piano music (SANDRA MOGENSEN: Piano Music of Edvard Grieg Volume 2) followed in 2009, and SANDRA MOGENSEN: Piano Music of Edvard Grieg Volume 3, again produced by Earl McCluskie, was released in 2012.  A fourth disc of Grieg's music, opus 33 (with American soprano, Laura Loge) and opus 66, was released in 2017..

Sandra Mogensen did her early musical studies with her mother, Edite Mogensen, in Sarnia, Ontario. Sandra's further training as a pianist has taken her to study with Damjana Bratuz at the University of Western Ontario, the Orff-Instiut Abteilung of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen where she studied with Friedrich Gürtler, and to Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ where she received the Master’s of Music in Vocal Coaching and Accompanying, studying with J.J.Penna and Dalton Baldwin.

Sandra Mogensen was a founding member of the National Piano Trio. A versatile musician, Sandra has extensive experience with chamber music, musical theatre and choral repertoire, as well as music in liturgy. Well-versed in English, French, German, Italian, Danish and Latvian, Ms. Mogensen is well known for her language and diction coaching. Ms. Mogensen has had an extensive teaching career and enjoys mentoring musicians in their processes of self-discovery and artistic development.

Sandra is drawn to the music of recent and living composers, as well as jazz and the art of improvisation. As a curator of musical experiences, Sandra seeks to reinvent and reinvigorate the recital format and heighten the listener’s experience of connection, relevance and meaning. Exploring the use of visual elements and improvisation, reorganizing the typical recital structure and reexamining conventional recital practices form the basis of this evolving work.