Meet the strings soloists that we are supporting in our strings talent programme for 2024-2025!
Helga Diljá Jörundsdóttir
Helga is an 18-year-old Icelandic violinist who began her studies at age four and has since been taught by Auður Hafsteinsdóttir and Joaquin Páll Palomares. In May 2023, Helga graduated from the Classical Music Program at The Reykjavík College of Music with a Secondary Education Diploma, earning the highest performance grade of the graduation class. Last spring Helga finished a Diploma degree from the IUA and is currently studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. She won the Young Soloists competition organised by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, “The Note” competition in Iceland, and was selected to participate in the ISO’s Conductor’s Academy with Eva Ollikainen. Helga plays a E. Hjørt & Sønner violin from 1923.
Alma Serafin Kraggerud
Alma, born October 2006, started violin at age 5 and made her orchestral debut at 9 with the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra. She has performed with numerous orchestras, including Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Montpellier National Opera, and won several prestigious prizes, such as the Norwegian Soloist Prize 2022 and 3rd prize in Eurovision Young Musician 2022. Alma plays on a Domenico Montagnana violin, generously lent by the Anders Sveaas Foundation.
Maya Broman Crawford-Philips
Maya, a Swedish-British violinist, studies with Akiko Ono at the Yehudi Menuhin School. She has won several competitions, including Polstjärnepriset, Øresunds solist, SIMC, and the Nordic International Competition, and was a semi-finalist in the 2024 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. She is an avid chamber musician and also regularly performs with the O/Modernt Chamber Orchestra as part of their New Generation programme, which has taken her to venues including the Elbphilharmonie and the Berlin Konzerthaus.
Annissa Gybel
Born in New York City in 2005, Annissa started playing the violin at the age of four. Currently a student of Itzhak Rashkovsky and Peter Herresthal, she holds a Master of Performance from the Royal College of Music in London, as an RCM Scholar, and a Bachelor of Music from the Royal Danish Academy of Music. She previously studied with Serguei Azizian.
Annissa has performed extensively across Scandinavia and Europe as well as in the United States. Recent highlights include London’s Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall and New York’s Merkin Hall.
Since 2019, Annissa performs on a violin by Stefan-Peter Greiner on generous loan from the Augustinus Foundation.
Birgitta Elise Oftestad
Birgitta began playing cello at age five and has since won 18 national and international prizes, most notably representing Norway in the Eurovision Young Musicians competition in Edinburgh in 2018, and winning NRK’s Virtuos competition and the Norwegian Soloist Prize. She has performed with major orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and appeared at prestigious festivals including the Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Bergen Festival, and Verbier Festival. She studies with Thorleif Thedèen at the Norwegian Academy of Music and plays a Peter Westerlund cello, on loan from Dextra Musica.
Hugo Svedberg
Hugo Svedberg, 16, has studied cello since age 6, and currently studies with Adrian Brendel in the UK. In 2024, he was awarded 1st prize in the ‘Pole Star Prize’ for Swedish Young Musicians, 2nd prize representing Sweden at the Eurovision Young Musicians competition in Norway, and was a semifinalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. Hugo has performed concertos with orchestras including the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and plays a fine Dollenz cello on loan from a generous sponsor through the Beares International Violin Society.