Austbø made his public debut at the age of fifteen in Oslo, and went on to study in Paris at the Conservatoire and École Normale de Musique, at the Juilliard School in New York, at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Munich, and in London. In 1970 Austbø was the first non-French pianist to win the Concours National de la Guilde Française des Artistes Solistes in Paris, and a year later, in Royan, he won the Olivier Messiaen Competition. In the mid-1970s Austbø won prizes at the International Munich Competition, where he played piano duets with Marina Horak, at the Ravel Competition in Paris, and, as a member of Trio du Nord, at the UNESCO International Rostrum, Bratislava.

In 1980 he was appointed to the staff of the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten in Utrecht and in 1994 was appointed to the staff of the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam.

Austbø’s first records were some LPs of pieces by Brahms, Schumann, Janáček and Scriabin. In 1973 he recorded a disc of Debussy’s piano duets with Claude Helffer. Paul Moor in High Fidelity was not keen on the approach to the music: ‘These artists adopt Boulez’ approach to Debussy, tending toward clarity and transparency rather than conventional “impressionist” atmosphere, and more toward austere, almost sanitary detachment than smooth legato. I personally take strong issue with that approach, but here at least you certainly do hear all the detail.’

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