Eve Risser

Risser was born in 1982[1] in Colmar, France.[2] She had piano lessons as a child and first saw graphic notation at the age of 11.[3] This "set her imagination free. But those desires were quashed by her instructor, who situated that sort of interpretational freedom within a larger, rigorous practice of study."[3]

Risser lived in Colmar until she was 18.[2] She then studied in Strasbourg for four years, playing improvised music and jazz on the piano and contemporary music on the flute.[2] She decided to concentrate on the piano after completing her studies.[3] She reported that "When I stopped the flute, I felt so limited in my improvisations with timbres that I started to explore the inside of the piano to be able to imitate trumpets, percussions and saxophones [...] I realized that building stuff with my hands for the piano was super fun."[3]

Risser was pianist in the Orchestre national de jazz from 2009 to 2013.[2] The premiere of her White Desert, for a tentet with amateur choirs, was in March 2015.[4]

A reviewer described her playing on the 2012 trio album En Corps as being "anything but conventional, highly percussive, full of muted strings, extended techniques, and repetitive phrases".[5] A Down Beat reviewer of her solo piano record Des Pas Sur La Neige commented on Risser's "arsenal of techniques and tools that transform her instrument into a kaleidoscopic sound machine, producing unexpected tones and timbres."[3]

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.