Artists
PHOTO: Lars Bryngelsson
Engegård Quartet
Arvid Engegård—violin
Laura Custodio Sabas—violin
Juliet Jopling—viola
Jan Clemens Carlsen—cello
The Engegård Quartet was formed under the midnight sun in Lofoten in 2005 and quickly became one of Norway's most sought-after ensembles. The quartet has a busy concert schedule both in Norway and abroad. They have released several albums on 2L, BIS, Simax and LAWO CLASSICS, garnering international recognition. Their release of Johan Kvandal's Complete String Quartets was nominated for a Spellemann Prize in 2023. The quartet is excited to have collaborated with international heavyweights such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Sir András Schiff and Marianne Beate Kielland, folk musicians such as Nils Økland, as well as actors Bjørn Sundquist and Gjertrud Jynge. In addition to the classical core programme, the quartet is committed and excited to be part of the renewal of the string quartet repertoire, commissioning extensively throughout their career. The Engegård Quartet is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council.
PHOTO: kaupo kikkas
Elias String Quartet
Sara Bitlloch, Violin
Donald Grant, Violin
Simone van der Giessen, VIOLA
Marie Bitlloch, cello
The Elias String Quartet takes its name from Mendelssohn's oratorio, Elijah (Elias in German) and has established itself as one of the most energetic and vibrant quartets of its generation. The Elias String Quartet was formed in 1998 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (RNCM). The quartet studied for a year with the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne. Between 2005 and 2009 they were musicians in residence at Sheffield's Music in the Round as part of Ensemble 360, taking over after the Lindsay Quartet. The Elias String Quartet is now ensemble in residence at the RNCM and regularly returns there to teach and perform. They have made a number of recordings, including the string quartets opus 13, opus 80 and opus 81 by Mendelssohn (2008).
photo: David dawson
Marianne Beate Kielland
A singer with such a charisma challenged her colleagues. (Dreh-Punkt-Kultur)
Mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland is famous for her strong stage presence and musical integrity. Gramophone Magazine writes about her: "The mezzo-soprano is quite outstanding: strong, firm, sensitive in modulations, imaginative in her treatment of words, with a voice pure in quality, wide in range and unfalteringly true in intonation."
She is educated from Norwegian Academy of Music, where she studied with Svein Bjørkøy. She has also studied with Oren Brown and Barbara Bonney.
She is one of Europe’s foremost concert singers, and she regularly appears in the concert halls of Europe, Japan and America with conductors such as: Masaaki Suzuki, Andrew Manze, Michel Corboz, Leonardo Alarcon, Herbert Blomstedt, Christopher Moulds, Jordi Savall, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Rene Jacobs, Pablo Heras-Casado, Han-Na Chang, Juanjo Mena and Ottavio Dantone.
Although Marianne Beate Kielland focused her 25 year long career on the concert repertoire, she has also performed operas on major opera stages: Bolshoj-theatre in Moscow, Opera Comique in Paris, Opera Royal of Versailles, Salzburg Mozartwoche and New Nathional Theatre in Tokyo.
In 2012 she was US Grammy nominee in "Best Vocal Classical Album» for "Veslemøy Synsk" by Olav Anton Thommessen, and with this and more than 65 other recordings and a wide range of repertoire and performances, she is established as a remarkable interpreter of music from baroque to contemporary era. She is the artistic leader of Oslo Chamber Music Festival and part-time associate professor at Norwegian Academy of Music.
PHOTO: anna julia granberg
Sveinung Bjelland
Sveinung Bjelland is one of Norway's leading concert pianists. He studied with Professor Hans Leygraf at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. In 1999, he was named Young Soloist of the Year by Norway’s National Concert Scheme. He has received several awards, including the Levin Prize and the Shell Prize. Bjelland distinguishes himself both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. He has been a soloist with all of Norway’s main orchestras, and has been a guest in a number of concert series and festivals throughout Europe.
Bjelland has made a number of recordings, both as a soloist and chamber musician. His recording of Scarlatti and Mendelssohn Sonatas was received with great international enthusiasm. It was also nominated for a Spellemann Prize in 2006. He has collaborated closely with the German tenor Daniel Behle for many years, performing in London, Berlin, Vienna, Lucerne, Paris, Munich and Frankfurt. Their three recordings of Die schöne Müllerin, Dichterliebe and Die schöne Magelone received enthusiastic reviews from the international music press.
Bjelland is Professor of Piano at the Norwegian Academy of Music and at the University of Agder.
FOTO: ARIEL LANYI
Ariel Lanyi
Ariel Lanyi began performing as a pianist at the age of 5, and played with an orchestra for the first time at the age of 6. He went on to study piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Hamish Milne and Ian Fountain. In addition, he received lessons from eminent artists such as Imogen Cooper, Richard Goode, Robert Levin, Murray Perahia, Leif Ove Andsnes, Ivan Moravec and Leon Fleisher.
In 2021, Lanyi won third prize in the Leeds International Piano Competition and was a finalist in the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. In the same year he was a prizewinner in the Young Classical Artists Trust (London) and the Concert Artists Guild (New York) International Auditions.
In addition to giving concerts in several countries, he has played with orchestras such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and has collaborated with conductors such as Trevor Pinnock, Andrew Manze, Peter Whelan and Yi-An Xu . As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with eminent artists such as Charles Neidich, Torleif Thedéen, Noah Bendix-Balgley, and has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival.
Marianne Thorsen
Marianne Thorsen has extensive experience both as a performer and violin teacher. She has been a soloist with, among others, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchester de la Suisse Romande, in addition to Norwegian orchestras. Together with the Trondheim Soloists, she won a Spelleman’s Prize in 2006 for her recording of Mozart's Violin Concertos no. 3-5. Marianne’s recording of Ståle Kleiberg's violin concerto, which is dedicated to her, with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra was nominated for an American Grammy in 2010. She has participated in a number of recordings for Hyperion Records in London.
Thorsen has performed at the BBC Proms in London and at the Edinburgh, Bath and Cheltenham festivals (for BBC Radio 3) in Great Britain. She was the first violinist of the Nash Ensemble of London from 2000-2015 and the Leopold String Trio from 1991-2006, with extensive touring activities in Europe, Australia and the USA. As a chamber musician, Marianne Thorsen has collaborated with, among others, Leif Ove Andsnes, Marc-André Hamelin, Truls Mørk, Paul Lewis, Pascal Rogé, Lars Anders Tomter and Håvard Gimse at chamber music festivals in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Stavanger.
Marianne Thorsen is a professor at NTNU and has also taught for a number of years at Royal Academy of Music in London.
PHOTO: nikolaj lund
Eivind Ringstad
Eivind Ringstad won NRK's soloist competition Virtuos in 2012. This led to him being able to represent Norway in the EBU's competition for young musicians in Vienna the same year, which he also won. Since then, Ringstad has been awarded the Øivind Berghs Memorial Prize 2013, the Caroline Prize 2013, Arve Tellefsen's music prize 2013 and the Statoil scholarship in 2014. In 2016 he was chosen to join the world's most prestigious training program for young up-and-coming classical musicians, BBC's New Generation Artists Scheme.
Ringstad is also a sought-after chamber musician, and he has performed at the Bergen Festival, Stavanger Chamber Music Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival and Rosendal Chamber Music Festival. As a soloist, he has performed with the Oslo Philharmonic, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Ringstad is currently solo violist in both the Oslo Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra.
Bjørg Værnes Lewis
Bjørg Værnes Lewis is one of Norway's most renowned cellists. She has collaborated with, among others, Leif Ove Andsnes, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Truls Mørk, Martin Frost and the Nash ensemble. She has been a soloist with the Oslo Philharmonic and with several orchestras abroad, and she regularly participates in national and international chamber music festivals.
Bjørg Værnes Lewis is a founding member of the award-winning Vertavo String Quartet. She was the artistic director of the Elverum Festival before she started Vertavo Festival in 2016. In 2009, Bjørg and her husband, the acclaimed pianist Paul Lewis, founded Midsummer Music - an annual three-day chamber music festival in the Chilterns, England.
Lewis is an associate professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Tore Linné Eriksen
Tore Linné Eriksen is a Norwegian historian, development researcher and nonfiction writer, and as a connoisseur of classical chamber music, he also writes program texts for concerts and festivals. He has been particularly interested in African history, global and environmental history and genocide studies. Tore Linné Eriksen has written, edited or contributed to around 80 publications, many of which are textbooks for upper secondary school and higher education. For these publications, he has received numerous awards, including The Conover-Porter Award, the African Studies Association (USA) and the Brage Award for High School Textbooks (1993). For the book about Nelson Mandela, he also received the Arts Council's award for best non-fiction book for children and young people. In 2010 he was awarded the Sverre Steen Prize for lifelong history dissemination at a high professional level. Tore Linné will give lectures and introductions to concerts during 1-2-3 Mendelssohn.
Sheila Hayman
SSheila Hayman has written and directed documentary films for the BBC, Channel 4, ARTE, Beijing TV and others, winning a BAFTA, Time Out Documentary Series of the Year, Arts Documentary of the Year nomination and a Robert Kennedy award. She has been UK Young Journalist of the Year, the BAFTA/Fulbright Fellow in Los Angele, a columnist for The Guardian, and Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab.
Many of her films have focused on our relationship with technology. Her other main focus is music in various genres. Her films and digital projects about music have included “The Rewrite of Spring” with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Barbican Centre, “100 Million Musicians” about Western classical music in China, and an interactive performance with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. On its release, her BBC film about her forebear Felix Mendelssohn, ‘Mendelssohn, The Nazis and Me’ was nominated for the Grierson Arts Documentary of the Year, and is still in demand for festivals around the world. “Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn” is its creative (and literal) sibling.
Sheila also coordinates a creative writing and performance group at UK NGO Freedom from Torture, working to help refugees as her father was helped in the 1930s.
Sølvguttene, The Norwegian Broadcasting Organisation’s Boys Choir, with conductor Fredrik Otterstad
Sølvguttene was founded in 1940. In 1967 the choir was merged with NRK's boys' choir and was renamed "Sølvguttene - NRK's boys' choir". The name Sølvguttene comes from the choir’s first silver colored costumes which the conductor, Torstein Grythe, sewed himself. Sølvguttene runs an extensive concert and tour business at home and abroad and is specially known and loved for their traditional concert “Sølvguttene sing Christmas” on NRK TV every Christmas Eve since 1966.
Sølvguttene has collaborated with the Norwegian Opera, the Oslo Philharmonic, The National Theater and the National Concerts in Norway, and they have sung together with well-known, international artists such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Andrea Bocelli and Barbara Hendricks.
They are conducted by Fredrik Otterstad, who took over musical responsibility for the choir after Torstein Grythe in 2004. Fredrik is educated at the University of Oslo and at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He also sang for several years in the world-famous male choir Gli Scapoli and for a while was the vocalist in the pop group State. He has also contributed to countless releases both as a singer and performing musician.
Barratt Due Juniorensemble
Barratt Due Junior Ensemble is a chamber orchestra for string talents aged 13-19 from all of Norway. The orchestra was formed in 1985, in keeping with the institute's idea that ensemble playing is at the very core of the formation of young musicians. Among the orchestra's former members we find names such as Aleksander Rybak, Vilde Frang, Eldbjørg and Ragnhild Hemsing, Camilla Kjøll, Catharina and Sara Chen, Guro Kleven Hagen, Eivind Ringstad, Sandra Lied Haga and Ludvig Gudim. Former members also hold the role of concertmaster in orchestras such as The Norwegian Opera Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Denmark’s Radio Symphony Orchestra and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra has extensive touring activities at home and abroad, and they have made several CDs recordings.
The conductor for the Barratt Due Junior Ensemble is the violinist Sigyn Fossnes. Sigyn's ideas for developing instrumental and musical diversity have created fertile ground for playfulness, creativity and curiosity. She has been a teacher at the Valdres Summer Symphony for a number of years, and from 2011 she has been Resident Musician at Musicfest in Wales. She is in demand as a lecturer and regularly holds master classes all over the world. Fossnes is also a renowned violinist; her first solo CD with pianist Einar Henning Smebye was launched during ULTIMA 2005, and on this basis she received the award as performer of the year 2005 by the Norwegian Composers' Association.
PHOTO: DMS
Den mangfaldige scenen
The diverse stage (DMS) is a children's and youth theater where annually 150 young people between the ages of 6 and 28 get to express themselves, learn and create theatre. The theater takes as its starting point the large and varied cultural wealth that young people bring with them, and gives each individual the opportunity to use and develop their creative abilities in collaboration with professional artists. The idea is to come up with new expressions in the meeting between the young people's interests and cultural heritage. The students practice every week and also have seminars. All the work results in smaller performances or larger productions. Together with Det Norske Teatret, DMS won the Norwegian public's audience award for 2016 and is rated by the Danish Culture Fund as a source of inspiration for Danish children's theatre. DMS had great success with the show Pavlov's Bitch (Joof/Johnsen), which was played for 40,000 young people in Norway and the other Nordic countries in 2016/2017.
PHOTO: Kristin Bolgård
Nordberg Strykeorkester
Nordberg String Orchestra is a neighborhood string orchestra with open doors and high ambitions. The members receive individual lessons in violin, viola, cello and bass at Tåsen, Kringsjå and Korsvoll schools. The ensemble groups Junior Orchestra, Children's Orchestra and Youth Orchestra meet at Korsvoll school every Monday. They have approx. 80 members. The age of the members is between 4 and 17 years. Teachers and conductors are among the country's most prominent musicians and also have connections to the district (Juliet Jopling, Mari Lerseth, Oda Habbestad and Maren Nygård). The orchestra is run voluntarily by a parental board. They play many concerts each year, both locally and on tour. They have toured Ireland twice and have a twin orchestra in Galway, Ireland. The orchestra has a chamber music seminar every semester for the most interested children.
Torje Gunvaldsen Råbu
Torje Råbu (born 2006) started playing in the Nordberg String Orchestra as a 6-year-old. He now attends Edvard Munch upper secondary school, and he is part of the talent program at the Barratt Due Music Institute. Torje has won first prize in the Youth Music Championship several times, both as a soloist and chamber musician. He won his soloist class for strings in the Midgard Competition in 2021 and 2023, and received the honorary prize with Quartett Saphir in 2023. He has played at chamber music festivals both in Norway and abroad. He plays a violin made by Christian Bayon, on loan from Dextra Musica.
Caroline Nissen Lenda
Caroline Nissen Lenda is a 17-year-old violinist born in Oslo. At the age of 5, she joined the Nordberg String Orchestra with Juliet Jopling as teacher. She then continued with Mari Lerseth, until she joined Barratt Due where she was taught by Victoria Johnson. Caroline now attends Unge Talenter where she has Soon-Mi Chung as her violin teacher. At Barratt Due she also plays in the Junior Orchestra. Caroline tries to find her own sound when she performs music, and she is also very fond of playing chamber music.
PHOTO: Nasjonalmuseet / Børre Høstland