Jana Luksts is a Canadian–Latvian pianist dedicated to experimental and contemporary classical performance, based between Berlin and New York City.

Her work as a performer and curator seeks to create unexpected, thoughtful, and engaging listening experiences by integrating extra-musical themes that reflect current social and historical issues. Through innovative programming and performance formats, she aims to expand traditional concert contexts and spotlight the work of composers and collaborators around her, with a special focus on speech/movement and unconventional notation (complexism, graphic notation).

From Beethoven to Ferneyhough, Jana has been heard in major concert halls throughout Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Canada, and major radio stations in Canada (Canadian Broadcasting Company) and Germany (hr2-kultur). 

Jana’s 2025/26 season will be published here shortly.

Most recently, Jana has held engagements at Miso Music Portugal (Lisbon), Canadian Music Center (Toronto), Hošek Contemporary (Berlin), Kunstraum 34 (Stuttgart), Musikbrauerei (Berlin), transmediale (Berlin) performing “MILLIONS OF EXPERIENCES - HUGE IF TRUE” alongside Jennifer Walshe & Wobbly, Alte Feuerwache Köln alongside f:t, Unerhörte Musik and Ölberg-Kirche Kreuzberg (Berlin) as a part of field notes’ Monat der Zeitgenössische Musik alongside soprano Kanae Mizobuchi and THE PRESENT Art Festival (Wuppertal), among others. With f:t, a trio of three pianists of which she is a founding member, she recorded the majority of existing works for three pianos at Fleischmarkthalle Karlsruhe, supported by Ensemble Funding from Musikfonds e.V., to be released later this year. Alongside Stuttgart-based Reactive Ensemble, she held an ensemble-in-residence for the 2023-24 season at Musikakademie Rheinsberg. 

Jana’s most recent release can be viewed here: an audio-visual production in collaboration with f:t and NYC-based composer George Katehis filmed at Musikbrauerei Berlin, with the support of the Goethe Institut.

As a soloist, Jana has performed at Orf RadioKulturhaus (Vienna), Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (Bern), hr-Sendesaal (Frankfurt), Musik der Jahrhunderte (Stuttgart), Gedok e.V. (Stuttgart), Kavalierhaus Rheinsberg (Rheinsberg), Ölberg-Kirche (Berlin), Musikbrauerei (Berlin), Altefeuerwache Köln (Cologne), Music Gallery (Toronto), Bunker Lane Press (Toronto), Pallas (Thessaloniki), Grypario Cultural Center (Mykonos), and as a soloist alongside the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra premiering Ernst Schneider’s “Piano Concerto No. 2”. 

As a guest artist, Jana has performed at festivals and residencies including transmediale (Berlin), Musikakademie Rheinsberg (Rheinsberg), THE PRESENT Art Festival (Wuppertal), Internationale Digitalkunst Festival (Stuttgart), Sound Symposium XIX (Newfoundland), Delian Academy for New Music (Mykonos) where she also led the Experimental Collaboration Workshop, and the Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Darmstadt) as part of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester). As a participant, she has performed and taken part in courses at the Klangspuren Schwaz Festival für Neue Musik (Innsbruck, IEMA Ensemble), Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Darmstadt, Studio Nicolas Hodges), Musikiin Aika/Time of Music (Finland, Studio Nicolas Hodges/Trio Accanto), and the Summer institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP, Boston, Studio Stephen Drury). 

Jana has given lectures and workshops on complexism, graphic scores, multi-media integration, and extra-musical material in new compositions for piano at the University of Toronto (Canada), Delian Academy for New Music (Mykonos), and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). 

As a curator, Jana is currently exhibiting “re:frame”, a commissioning and artistic research project of three-dimenstional graphic scores, to be performed in non-music spaces by flute, piano, synthesizer, and electronics. Supported by the Explore & Create component of the Canada Arts Council, “re:frame” is conducted alongside flutist-curator Sara Constant, with newly commissioned three-dimensional graphic scores by Symon Henry and Éloïse Plamandon-Pagé (Quebec), Esthir Lemi (Greece), and R.E. Smith (Australia), with scheduled performance in Germany and Canada in the 2023-24 season. In 2019, Jana was a guest curator for the “Muted Blast 2.0” series presented by Greek composer-curator collective meta.ksi. 

Jana’s artistic work has been kindly supported by Musikfonds e.V., GVL Neustart Kultur, Canada Council for the Arts, Women’s Art Association of Canada, BC Arts Council, and the 42nd Eckhardt-Grammaté National Music Competition, of which she was the 2nd prize winner. 

Jana’s involvement with contemporary classical music has allowed her to work in close proximity with composers such as Michael Finnissy, Helmut Lachenmann, Mark Andre, Marco Stroppa, Jennifer Walshe, and Philippe Leroux.

Jana completed her Master of New Music with Prof. Nicolas Hodges in July 2021 at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. After finishing her formative studies with Elizabeth Wocks (Piano) and Ken Stromberg (Violin) in Kelowna (British Columbia, Canada) she completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, supported in full by the Alice & Armen Matheson Scholarship, studying with Dr. Jamie Parker.