Skip to main content

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

  • What's on
  • Your Visit
  • About Us
  • Take part
  • Support us
  • My Account
  • Search

Site Menu.

Main Site Sections.

  • What's on
  • Your Visit
  • About Us
  • Take part
  • Support us
  • Digital Concert Guides

More Site Pages.

  • My Account
Return to main
Artists in Residence

Alice Sara Ott

Collaborative Artist

Internationally acclaimed pianist Alice Sara Ott is a CBSO Collaborative Artist for our 2026-27 and 2027-28 Seasons, with performances at home in Birmingham and on tour in Japan.

Pianist Alice Sara Ott is one of the most original musical voices of her generation. Her work brings together performance, recording, and visual storytelling in projects shaped by a distinct artistic identity and a compelling, contemporary narrative. Whether re-examining familiar repertoire or introducing audiences to new music, she approaches each programme as a world of its own.

The 2026/27 concert season marks the beginning of two new artistic relationships in the UK. As Collaborative Artist at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for two seasons, she will perform with the orchestra in Birmingham and internationally, as well as taking part in chamber music, recording and wider creative projects. In January 2027, Alice begins a yearlong position as Artist in Residence at London’s Barbican Centre with a series of performances and specially conceived projects.

Contemporary repertoire sits at the core of Alice Sara Ott’s performances and in February 2027she will give the world premiere performance of Joe Hisaishi’s Piano Concerto with the composer conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. Alice works closely with the composer Bryce Dessner and in spring 2027 will present Love, Icebox in concert halls across Europe, including London, Antwerp, Berlin and Hamburg. Written for Alice, it is a work for solo piano inspired by the recently published collection of love letters from John Cage to Merce Cunningham. The premiere took place in December 2025 at Fondation Louis Vuitton with Isabelle Huppert reading a selection of the letters. An album of Dessner’s music from this performance, paired with the piano concerto he wrote for Alice, will be released in spring 2027 on Deutsche Grammophon, with whom Alice enjoys a successful partnership and for whom she has recorded exclusively since 2008.

Throughout the season, Alice will perform piano concertos by Beethoven, Ravel and Grieg with orchestras including the Pittsburgh Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and Vienna Symphony Orchestra. She also continues the international tour of her recital programme which pairs the nocturnes of John Field with sonatas by Beethoven. Her Deutsche Grammophon recording of Field’s complete nocturnes topped international classical charts, entered the Top 30 of Germany’s mainstream
pop chart and was named Apple Music Classical’s Album of the Year 2025.

In summer 2026, Alice Sara Ott appeared as a guest mentor on the popular, mainstream series, Channel 4’s The Piano, joining MIKA and Claudia Winkleman at Manchester Piccadilly Station and the programme's grand finale at Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Live in concert

  • Kazuki conducts Shostakovich's 5th Symphony

  • Centre Stage: Kazuki Yamada & Alice Sara Ott

Meet more of our Collaborative Artists

  • Rushil Ranjan

    Collaborative Artist
  • Jess Gillam

    Collaborative Artist

Further content for Alice Sara Ott

Keep exploring... Meet our Artists in Residence

Contact Details

(0121) 616 6500 information@cbso.co.uk

More Site Pages

  • News & Stories
  • Jobs
  • Press
  • Contact
  • Hire

Legal Pages

  • Terms & conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookie policy
  • Site Map
  • Safeguarding
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • X
  • TikTok
  • YouTube

Principal Funders

Supported using public funding by Arts Council EnglandSCC

Small Print

©2026. The CBSO is a registered charity in England (No. 506276).

Address: CBSO Centre, Berkley Street, Birmingham, B1 2LF

Website by Supercool.