Johannes Grosso is solo oboe in the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester. He has won prices in several international competitions like Prague Spring and International Double Reed Society. He is regularly invited to perform as soloist or as chamber musician and plays with many of the leading european orchestras like Budapest Festival Orchestra, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. Johannes was appointed teacher in oboe  by the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2018. He has worked as Coach for woodwind sections in several youth orchestras.

Gitte Marcusson is Professor of Flute at Royal College of Music, London. 

She is devoted to teaching and, in addition to her professorship at RCM, she coaches students worldwide in her London-based studio. She has taught many of today’s outstanding flautists, including Katherine Bryan, Principal Flute of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Adam Walker, Principal Flute of the London Symphony Orchestra; Alex Jakeman, Principal Flute of the BBC Philharmonic; and Joshua Batty, Principal Flute Sidney Symphony Orchestra.

Gitte taught at Chethams School of Music for 16 years and is much in demand as guest professor giving classes at conservatories and colleges around the world. She is founder and director of Nordic Flute International Summer School.

As a student Gitte Marcusson left her native Denmark to study flute with Trevor Wye and Clare Southworth in Manchester. Later she continued her studies in London with Patricia Lynden, Patricia Morris and Rachel Brown. 

After a decade living in London combining orchestral playing, chamber music and teaching she moved to Sweden where she was co-principal with Camerata Calluna Chamber Orchestra 2000-2010.  

Her commitment to chamber music shows in the vast numbers of performances at societies and festivals throughout Europe. One of her 500 concerts for “Live Music Now” was a performance at Buckingham Palace celebrating Sir Yehudi Menuhin.

She is a member of the faculty at Wildacres Flute Retreat, North Carolina, and Professor at the prestigious Old Ox Festival, Stockholm.

Linda Taube is solo piccolo at Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and at the Gothenburg Symphony 2011-2008. She regularly performs across the Nordic countries and teaches piccolo at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and Lilla Akademien. She has also been teaching at the Music Academy in Gothenburg and Birkagårdens Folkhögskola in Stockholm, among other.

*Teaches only some of the days

Andreas Sundén is a clarinet soloist in the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and was previously clarinet soloist in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He has been a soloist with many of the leading European orchestras and has won several prizes in international competitions. He began his studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music taught by Hans Christian Braein and has since studied alongside Hans Deinzer and Yehuda Gilad in Los Angeles. He has taught master classes in the US, Australia, Japan, China, Korea, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and in Scandinavia. Sundén is currently a Professor at the Ingesund School of Music and teaches at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Sundén is the artistic director of the Summer Academy Voksenåsen for Winds.

Björn Nyman is clarinet soloist for the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. He is an active soloist and chamber musician. Nyman is an awardwinner of two of the most prestigious international competitions for clarinetists, the ARD competition in Munich in 2004 and the Carl Nielsen competition in Odense in 2005. Nyman studied with Hans Christian Bræin and Leif Arne Pedersen at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and with Yehuda Gilad at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Björn Nyman got his first job as a clarinet soloist for the Lapin Chamber Orchestra at the age of 19. He has also been a clarinet soloist for the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester conducted by Pierre Boulez and Claudio Abbado. His first solo CD was released at LAWO where he, together with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra plays Debussy, Crusell and Jan Erik Mikalsens Clarinet Concert. Nyman teaches at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

*Teaches only some of the days

Audun Halvorsen, born 1979, studied with Robert Rønnes, Eirik Birkeland and Knut Sønstevold, and Ole Kristian Dahl has been Audun’s coach and mentor since 2001.  Since 2006 he is Principal Bassoon in Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen, a position he also held in NDR Sinfonieorchester, Hamburg (2011), Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (2005-2006) and in Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (2001-2007). As a guest  Audun has played with orchestras such as London Symphony Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and so forth. Audun is currently teaching bassoon at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen and at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. 

*Teaches only some of the days

Fredrik Ekdahl is the principal bassoonist of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and previously held the same position with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is also a regular guest principal with orchestras including the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Bernhard Haitink and Sir Simon Rattle.
An avid soloist and chamber musician, Ekdahl has collaborated with artists such as Janine Jansen, Martin Fröst and Radek Baborak at festivals and venues around the world.
Ekdahl has previously been teaching at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm and has held master classes at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, The Royal Conservatoire Antwerp, the Beijing Conservatory of Music and the Australian National Academy of Music, as well as teaching annually at the Voksenåsen Summer Academy in Oslo.
Ekdahl studied with Arne Nilsson, Knut Sönstevold, Ole Kristian Dahl and Dag Jensen at universities in Gothenburg, Stockholm, Aarhus and Hannover. In 2006 he was awarded 2nd prize at the Gillet-Fox Competition in the USA.
Being on a quest to expand the bassoon repertoire Ekdahl is frequently performing new music and is collaborating with composers such as Jesper Nordin, Jacob Mühlrad and Molly Kien. 
In 2022 Jesper Nordin ́s bassoon concerto ”Vicinities” featuring Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra was released on the Kairos label.
Since 2022 Fredrik Ekdahl is professor of bassoon at the HfM Trossingen. 

*Teaches only some of the days

Frøydis Ree Wekre started playing the violin at the age of 6 and later switched to the French horn at the age of 17. Just after one year playing in the Norwegian Opera Orchestra, she got a position in the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. She was employed for 30 years at the Oslo Phiharmonic, most of the time as alternating solo French horn. Later she became professor of horn and chamber music at the Norwegian Academy of Music. She is known in professional circles all over the world after numerous master classes and concerts as a soloist and chamber musician.

Her 1992 book, Thoughts on Playing the Horn well, has been translated into 9 languages. Her most recent book, Collected Writings, was published in 2020. Furthermore, she has made many CD recordings, on brands such as SIMAX, CRYSTAL and 2L. A large part of the recorded works were originally composed especially for her.

Frøydis Ree Wekre is an honorary member of the International Horn Society, and she has been a regular guest at festivals such as the Sarasota Music Festival in the USA and Riva del Garda in Italy, as well as in Banff and Domaine Forget in Canada. She is still active and teaches master classes at home and abroad. Frøydis Ree Wekre’s lifelong educational activities have resulted in hundreds of horn players being employed in professional ensembles worldwide.

Natallia Papova completed her studies from the Norwegian Academy of Music with Håvard Gimse, Leif Ove Andsnes and Liv Glaser as teachers.
During her career she has toured and played concerts, both as soloist and chamber musician, in large parts of Europe, Asia, the Nordic countries, China and USA.
Musicians like Liv Glaser, Philippe Entremont, Jiri Hlinka, Robert Levin, Malcolm Bilson and Bart von Oort (hammerklavier) has been imporant mentors through masterclasses and festivals.
Papova won the First Prize in the piano competition at the Music Academy in Minsk (2003), was in the semifinal in the M. K. Ciurlionis International Piano Competition in Vilnius, and was a finalist in the Conoco- Philips competition. She has also received several awards as a chamber musician.

Since 2007 Papova has worked as accompanist at Barratt Due Institute of Music.

Asuka Nakamura began playing the piano at the age of three in Nagoya, Japan. When she was six, she made her debut, playing chamber music with members of the state Philharmonic Orchestra, and already as a nine-year-old she made her solo debut with Mozart’s famous Piano Concerto no. 23. Asuka has won both 1st and 2nd prize in the prestigious piano competition J. P. Fresh in Tokyo, which included a concert in Stockholm’s Concert Hall in 1997.

She began studying with Staffan Scheja at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2002. When she finished her studies, she was awarded the Jetong Medal, which is only awarded to the very best in higher education.

After Asuka moved to Stockholm, she has received scholarships from the Masonic Lodge and the Royal College of Music four years in a row. She has also participated as a Research Fellow in the Holland Music Sessions and in the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in Germany. In Sweden she has performed piano concertos by Grieg, Beethoven, Mozart and Messiaën, and in 2010 she was a soloist with Västerås Sinfonietta with Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1.
In 2013, Swedish Radio made the documentary “Mozart has never been to Japan”, which is a free, artistic insight into Asuka’s journey from Japan, and about her life as a pianist in Sweden today.

Maria Tarasewicz has already gained an enviable international reputation as a chamber musician, duo partner and a pedagogue. The depth and quality of Maria’s credentials can be judged through the collaborations she has had with many great international artists, such as Ivry Gitlis, Maxim Vengerov, Gavriel Lipkind and Truls Mørk. She is also committed to working with and developing younger artists. Maria has performed in all of London major concert venues including Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Southbank, Royal Albert Hall and many others. One of Maria’s current projects is the initiative of cofounding The Thinking Musician©, the platform organising summer music courses combining music as art, philosophy, intellectual provocations and speaking of the artist’s role in world.

Award winning violinist Peter Herresthal has appeared with orchestras and ensembles worldwide from Melbourne Symphony with Thomas Adès conducting at the Melbourne festival, Vienna Radio Symphony in Konzerthaus Wien, BBC Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta to the major Scandinavian orchestras including Oslo and Stockholm Philharmonic. He has recorded 16 violin concertos for BIS and Simax earning 7 nominations and three Norwegian Grammys. His Nørgård recording was nominated for a Gramophone Award and was Editors Choice in The Strad and International Record Review.The last three seasons Peter has been touring Europe and US with Kaija Saariahos aria “Vers toi es si loin” written for him and more than 15 performances of her violin concerto “Graal Theatre” ,most recently recording the work for BIS with the Oslo Philharmonic and a TV production for BBC.Peter Herresthal is a Professor at the Oslo Academy ,visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music, London and NYU Steinhard School New York. He performs on a GB Guadagnini from Milan 1753. 

*Teaches both violin and viola.

Mark Messenger has had a broad and varied career. However, one will not find here any competition accolades as he suspects that the Olympic sport of trying to play better than another artist is inherently flawed.

His love of music and the human connection it offers has meant he has shared the concert platform with some remarkable musicians – amongst others, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Ivry Gitlis, Maxim Vengerov, Bernard Greenhouse, Natalie Clein, Raphael Wallfisch, Thomas Carroll, Yonty Solomon, Howard Shelley, John Lill, Dame Thea King, Michael Collins, Chris Garrick and Sir John Dankworth – as well as some incredible students. He hopes that these connections, some of which are fleeting, and others which last for decades, have in some way affected these people to the same extent as he has been transformed by them.

He has taken great pleasure from over three decades of string quartet playing, travelling across the world to teach, conducting and from his role as Head of Strings at the Royal College of Music. Recently, he founded – with his wife, pianist Maria Tarasewicz – the innovative and provocative Thinking Musician programme which strives to stimulate talented young artists to become the best version of themselves in music and in life. As long as his exploration of life and music continues to provide such human experiences, he will continue the journey with travelling companions from any walk of life.

*Teaches both violin and viola.

Per Enoksson began studying the violin with Alice Goldschmid and later with Professor Milan Vitek. After gaining a Diploma at the Royal Academy of Music, Copenhagen, in 1982,  he then continued his studies in New York with Professor Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music. Per Enoksson also participated in masterclasses with Henryk Szeryng and Isaac Stern. 

Distinguishing himself as prizewinner in the Carl Nielsen and the Jean Sibelius competitions.

Per Enoksson’s career includes solo performances with all the leading Scandinavian orchestras, including the Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Swedish Radio, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Malmö S.O., Helsinki and Danish Radio Orchestras. 

Per Enoksson has recorded several discs, which include the complete Brahms sonatas, Busoni and Sjögren sonatas and Messiaens Quartet for the end of time. 

Teaching posts have included positions at the College of Music, Oslo and at the Academy of Music, Copenhagen. Per Enoksson is presently Professor at Edsberg, Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm.

Per Enoksson was 1^st concertmaster of Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra from 1987- 2022

*Teaches both violin and viola

Diemut Poppen is one of the most outstanding violists of her generation. Born into a musical family in Germany she started playing the violin at the age of seven, giving her first concerts as a soloist at the age of nine. She learnedseveral instruments of which the viola became her favorite.Diemut Poppen studied in Düsseldorf, Aachen, Cologne, Berlin, Bloomington (USA) and Paris. Amongst her teachers were the finest violists of hertime: Y.Bashmet, K.Kashkashian, B.Giuranna, H.Schlichtig, P.Schidlof from the Amadeus-Quartet.

Nowadays, Diemut Poppen is one of the most sought after violists, playing concerts worldwide. As a soloist and chamber musician she has appeared in the most important music centres around the world. In London she appeared as a soloist at the Barbican Centre, the Queen Elisabeth Hall and she gave chamber concerts, amongst others, at the Wigmore Hall. Well-known musicians have invited Diemut Poppen to participate in their festivals – amongst others – C.Abbado, A.Schiff, G.Kremer, T.Mork, L.Kavakos, N.Gutman, A.Chaushian.

Diemut Poppen performed as a soloist under the baton of conductors such as Heinz Holliger, Frans Brüggen and Claudio Abbado (Carnegie Hall, New York). She has been awarded the European Music Prize.

Diemut Poppen was co-principal viola in Lucerne Festival Orchestra and principal viola whilst a founding member of The Chamber Orchestra of Europe. She was Artistic Director of several chamber music festivals, currently of Cantabile Festival Lisboa and Rigi Musiktage in Switzerland.

Poppen’s repetoire is exceptionally wide. It spans from the classical viola concertos to all combinations of chamber music as well as contemporary music. Several composers have written new pieces for her. Diemut Poppen has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Capriccio, Live classics, EMI, Tudor, Ondine and BIS.

Diemut Poppen is Professor for Viola and Chamber Music at Detmold, at the Escuela de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid and at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. Her students are always successful and win important positions in European orchestras and Universities.

*Teaches only some of the days. Teaches both violin and viola

Stephanie Baer, Director of String Studies, Professor of Viola and Professor of Chamber Music at NYU, has been an active member of the New York musical community for many years. A widely experienced chamber musician, Ms. Baer has toured extensively throughout Europe, Asia and Africa. She is presently a member of the “Metamorphosis” Piano Quartet. Ms. Baer has toured throughout the United States as a member of the Arioso Ensemble, has been principal violist and chamber soloist at the Carmel Bach Festival where she performed on Baroque and modern viola, and has performed at the Mostly Mozart, the Monadnock and the White Mountains Festivals.  

She is a former principal violist of the New Jersey Symphony and has performed with Orpheus, the New York City Ballet, the New York City Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and many other ensembles in the New York area. Ms. Baer has been on the faculties of Bard College, Vassar College and the Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College. Ms. Baer holds B.M. and M.M. degrees from the Mannes College of Music and a Diploma of Honor from the Academia Chigiana, Siena, Italy. She is also a recipient of the prestigious C.B. Jackson Master’s Award for Musical Excellence from the Berkshire Music Festival, Tanglewood. Her teachers include William Primrose, Dorothy Delay, Michael Tree, Bruno Giuranna, Joyce Robbins, Karen Tuttle and Karen Ritscher. She has coached chamber music with members of the Juilliard and Guarneri Quartets as well as with Felix Galimir. 

*Teaches only some of the days. Teaches both violin and viola

Imaginative and eloquent, violinist Mari Samuelsen is known for her breath-taking artistry and adventurous approach to programming and presentation. With a technique that blends virtuosity and entrancing musical finesse, Mari presents an innovative musical universe that knows no barriers between the music of such composers as Anna Meredith, Max Richter, Hannah Peel, Caroline Shaw, Arvo Pärt, Pēteris Vasks and Jeff Mills, and that of Bach, Phillip Glass, Beethoven and Vivaldi. Her drive to not do what is traditionally expected, is what has turned Mari Samuelsen into an inspiration for a global audience. 

Mari has appeared as soloist and recitalist on many of the world’s leading stages, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, London’s Barbican Centre, Berlin’s Konzerthaus and Paris’ Philharmonie and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. She has recently performed with the Orchestre National de Lyon, with appearances at the Berlin Philharmonie and Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, as well as the Radio France Festival in Montpellier.

Mari is an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist. 2022 marks the release of her second album for the distinctive Yellow Label, named LYS, meaning “light” in Norwegian features new commissions for her from the likes of Hannah Peel, Anna Meredith, Laura Massoto and MEREDI as well as existing works from Caroline Shaw and Hildur Guðnadóttir. In 2019 she released MARI, her debut recording, and was lauded by Gramophone magazine for her ‘Seriously impressive playing…hand-crafted precision.’ As well as dominating the classical charts, MARI and her previous albums were also number 1 hits in the popular charts in her home county of Norway. 

A classically trained violinist, her studies with Arve Tellefsen and later at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo were followed by a decade with world-renowned professor Zakhar Bron at the Zurich University of the Arts. 

Picture by Deutsche Grammophon/ Jonathan Vivaas Kise.

*Teaches only some of the days. Teaches both violin and viola

Cellist Torleif Thedéen is one of the foremost musicians in Scandinavia. He performs with some of the world’s major orchestras, among which the BBC Philharmonic, Deutsche Symfonieorkester Berlin, Vienna Symphony – under conductors like Esa-Pekka Salonen, Paavo Berglund and Neeme Järvi. Being a passionate chamber musician, Thedéen often performs in venues and festivals all over the world. As a chamber musician he plays with musicians partners like Martin Fröst and Janine Jansen. He is Visiting Professor of cello at the Royal College of Music in London, Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and a former Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. He plays ex Rostropovich Guadagnini cello on loan from Dextra Foundation Norway.

*Teaches only August 10th and 11th.

Recognised as being one of the most outstanding figures of her generation, Hélène Dautry is a much sought after cellist and teacher. Pupil of Maurice Gendron, Hélène has inherited one of the most beautiful representations of the French Cello School. Holder of the coveted First Prize of the CNSM of Paris and the Prize of the International ‘Maurice Ravel Academy’, she performed for 12 years worldwide as a soloist with the orchestra of Jean-Francois Paillard, and was cello solo in the Orchestra in Besancon, under the leadership of Peter Csaba. 
 
Holder of the C A the highest teaching diploma in France, Hélène is currently professor at the RCM in London, at the CRR in Paris, and at the Ecole Normale de Musique ‘Alfred Cortot in Paris. 
 
Invited to numerous festivals and examining boards, she continues her career as a soloist and chamber music artist. 

Born in Denmark, Henrik studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen with Erling Bløndal Bengtsson, and later in London with William Pleeth and Ralph Kirshbaum. 

He joined the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 1987, shortly after having done his first tour. Since then, Henrik has been working extensively with the Orchestra. 

He has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, and is a regular guest at highly profiled international chamber music festivals. 

His numerous recordings include the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven, solo works for cello by Sofia Gubaidulina, and cello works by Chopin and Liszt which won the French award “Diapason d’Or”. 

Henrik is a very active chamber musician and has been the cellist of several leading ensembles in Denmark, such as The Danish String Quartet, the string sextet “Copenhagen Classic”, and the Gefion Trio. 

He is currently Professor of Cello at the Royal Academy of Music in Århus, Denmark. 

*Teaches only some of the days

Frederik Øland studied violin under Professor Serguei Azizian at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, and under Professor Ulf Wallin at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. At the age of 23, he won the position of leader of the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, and in the same year he was appointed a teacher of violin and chamber music at RDAM in Copenhagen. Frederik left the Copenhagen Phil in 2017 to focus on the Danish String Quartet, in which he is a violinist, but he continues to assist in several of the Danish orchestras from time to time. 

Frederik is one-quarter of the Danish String Quartet, with whom he has received many awards and accolades, most recently as Musical America Ensemble of the Year in 2020. The quartet tours all over the world, and in 2020 they completed a concert cycle of all Beethoven’s string quartets at the Lincoln Center in New York. Their CD series ‘Prism’ was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2019. 

The Danish String Quartet are the organisers of both the DSQ Festival and the ‘Series of Four’ concert series. Here, the musicians in the quartet take on a more administrative role, while also acting as artistic leaders. 

Frederik has received the Jacob Gade Prize, the Victor Borge Prize, the Léonie Sonning Scholarship and the Emil Holm Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. 

Photo by Caroline Bittencourt.

Asbjørn Nørgaard is one of the leading classical Danish musicians of his generation. He is the viola player of the Danish String Quartet, and has with the quartet won the First Prize in several national and international chamber music competitions, including Danish Radio P2 Chamber Music Competition in 2004 and the London International Chamber Music Competition in 2009. The Danish String Quartet plays about 80 concerts a year and performs worldwide in halls such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Elb Philharmonic. Asbjørn Nørgaard is artistically responsible for the Danish String Quartet’s programming and has in this function instigated several innovative concert programs and formats. He is also the driving force for the DSQ festival and the Series of Four concert series.
Asbjørn Nørgaard teaches viola and chamber music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and has taught at festivals and masterclasses in most of the world, including Yellow Barn and Music@Menlo in the USA and the Festival de Campos do Jordão in Brazil. He is also chairman of the board of Art Music Denmark, the Danish genre organization for classical music, new composed music and sound art.
Asbjørn Nørgaard studied at the music conservatories in Stockholm, Berlin and Copenhagen with his debut from the soloist class at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 2013. He is the recipient of Jacob Gade’s major scholarship, the Harby Foundation’s Honorary Award and the Soning Foundation’s talent award. He plays on a Peregrino de Zanetto viola from 1560, lent by the Augustinus Foundation.

*Teaches only some of the days.

Photo by Caroline Bittencourt.

Fredrik Sjølin (b. 1982) grew up in Trondheim and is one of Scandinavia’s most sought-after cellists and chamber musicians of his generation. For 15 years, Fredrik has been a cellist in “The Danish String Quartet”, which still forms the main part of his work. The quartet conducts extensive touring activities with around 100 concerts a year, regular recordings on ECM records, and often appears as guest teachers around the world. Outside the quartet, Fredrik is active as a guest soloist and a chamber musician, and he teaches on a regular basis at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music. 

*Teaches only some of the days.

In much demand as a chamber musician and duo partner for instrumentalists and singers, Craig studied at The Royal Academy of Music with Michael Dussek and Diana Ketler. Craig spent some time living and working in Germany at the Köln Hochschule für Musik und Tanz and has since worked at the  Kronberg Academy as a staff accompanist  In 2012, Craig won the accompanist prize at the centenary Kathleen Ferrier Awards, following accompanist prizes at the Thelma King Awards, Great Elm Vocal Awards and AESS Finals. This October will see the release of a Debut CD of early songs by Joseph Jongen with Belgian Soprano Sarah Defrise. Craig also works as an arranger and 2019 saw the publication of a set of 5 new violin and piano arrangements of Debussy Piano Preludes.

The pianist Berit Johansen Tange graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Anne Øland as her teacher, and made her debut from the chamber music class in 2000.

She is currently employed as Accompanist, Repetiteur and teacher in accompaniment at RDAM. She has performed as a chamber musician and soloist in countless contexts, both in and outside of Denmark.

Johansen Tange has especially worked intensely with the Danish composer Rued Langgaard’s music, and has recorded three albums with his solo piano works – the 4th will be released in 2022. Together with the violinist Gunvor Sihm she has recorded all of Langgaard’s works for violin and piano (3 albums), releases that has received great reviews both in Denmark and abroad.

Berit Johansen Tange has for many years been a regular concert host at the annual Rued Langgaard Festival. She has actively worked to spread the knowledge of Langgaard’s music, both through masterclasses, a Langgaard competition for students, launched in 2021, as well as solo performance at the Langgaard Symposium in Vienna. She is also a co-publisher of the sheet music edition of Langgaard’s collected works for piano, published in 2018 by Edition Wilhelm Hansen.

Mezzo-soprano Randi Stene is one of Scandinavia’s leading opera and concert soloists, and appears on the most important European stages. Since 1989 she has been engaged at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. She has a large repertoire, covering both the classical mezzo roles and many new or rarely performed works. She is Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music. From August 2020, Stene is the new Opera Director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Stene is artistic leader of the Summer Academy Voksenåsen Voice program.

*Teaches part-time

Susanna Eken is one of Scandinavia’s most prominent voice teacher. Since 1972 Eken has been teaching at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory as associate professor in voice and vocal techniques. She also teaches at the Opera Academy at the Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen. During the last 25 years Eken has taught several Scandinavian and international singers, among them Randi Stene, Mari Eriksmoen, Magnus Staveland, Johannes Weisser and Lise Davidsen.

The last 15 years, next to her carrier as a Royal Danish Opera Soloist at the Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen, Anne Margrethe Dahl has been Head of the Royal Opera Academy in Copenhagen. In addition, she has taught and educated a large number of Danish and international opera singers. Anne Margrethe Dahl has for many years held master classes together with Susanna Eken. Last season she also taught and coached at Stuttgart’s Musik Hochschule as well as the Norwegian Opera.

Mezzo-soprano Tuva Semmingsen studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and the Royal Opera Academy in Copenhagen.

Tuva made her debut at the Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen in 1999 as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, and sang the same part at the Teatro Fenice in Venice in 2000. As a permanent member of the soloist ensemble at the Royal Danish Theater 2000-2016, she has made a name for herself in Julius Cesar, The Barber of Seville, Cinderella, et al.

Tuva’s love of early music has led to collaborations with, among others, Concerto Copenhagen and Barokksolistene. Together with the latter, she has recorded the CD London Calling, and the soundtrack to Lars von Trier’s film “Antichrist”.

Tuva is completing her master’s degree in elite singing pedagogy at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in the summer of 2022, and is also doing a certification education in Timani, at the Musicians’ Health and Movement Institute in Oslo.

Since August 2020, she has been employed as Associate Professor of singing at the Grieg Academy in Bergen. In the academic year 21/22, she is also part-time teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where she teaches singing and voice theory.

Composer/librettist Rachel J. Peters writes operas that sound like musicals and musicals that sound like operas: Companionship (Fort Worth Opera), Rootabaga Country (Sarasota Opera), Sketchbook for Ollie (Lyric Opera of Kansas City), Lesson Plan (Caramoor/On Site Opera), The Wild Beast of the Bungalow (Oberlin Conservatory), Staggerwing, Men I’m Not Married To (Cleveland Opera Theater), and Only Children (NYU Tisch). Concert works include Ethel Smyth Plays Golf in Limbo (Semperoper Dresden) and If You Can Prove That I Should Set You Free (Albany Symphony). Rachel’s songs have been performed at Lincoln Center, Second Stage, National Opera Center, Symphony Space, National Sawdust, and cabarets and theatres nationwide. She is a contributor to The AIDS Quilt Songbook, as well as Michael R. Jackson’s Dirty Laundry and Zachary James’s CALL OUT albums. Rachel has held residencies and fellowships with New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio, The American Opera Project, John Duffy Institute for New Opera. Kimmel Harding Nelson, Yaddo, and Millay Arts. She is an OPERA America Female Composers Discovery Grant recipient for the upcoming Manor of Speaking. Rachel holds degrees from Brandeis University and NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and serves on the Dramatists Guild’s Opera Committee. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. 

Royce Vavrek is a Canada-born, Brooklyn-based librettist and lyricist who has been called “the indie Hofmannsthal” (The New Yorker) a “Metastasio of the downtown opera scene” (The Washington Post), “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times), and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio).  His opera “Angel’s Bone” with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music. 

Ståle Ytterli, from Korgen in Nordland. He is educated from Oslo, Copenhagen and New York. Ytterli is a singer with a wide repertoire that ranges from medieval music to modern musicals. In recent years he has worked mostly with theater, musicals, entertainment music such as early jazz / ragtime and tango. He also has participated in several modern dance performances. He has had major roles in musicals such as Les Miserables, Chess, Which Witch, Lady be good. He has also worked at Haugesund Theater in “Annie”, The Vamp musical “Hello Goodbye”, and the theater monologue “I am my own wife.” In 2014, he was associated with Sogn og Fjordane Teater in the newly written musical “Kjærleikens Ferjereiser” by Sommero and Hoem. He has been on three long study trips to Buenos Aires to learn more about tango singing and to experience a living tango environment. He has now started a tango group (Cantango) that focuses mainly on Argentinian tango singing. He is also a sought-after singing teacher and is associated with the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Norwegian Theater as a singing teacher. At the Norwegian Academy of Music, he also teaches drama subjects.

Åshild Kyvik Bauge completed her teacher education from the Music Department at Bergen Teacher Training College and vocal teacher education from the Norwegian Music Teachers’ National Association, before she obtained a master’s diploma in singing at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

From 1996 until today, she has been singing teacher at Rud Upper Secondary School in Bærum. For 15 years she was affiliated with the Norwegian Academy of Music as a part-time teacher and college lecturer, until she was employed as Associate Professor of vocal didactics at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in 2005.

In addition to her pedagogical practice, Åshild has had an extensive carreer as a mezzo-soprano. In 2014, she published the book “Singing technique in the children’s and youth choir” together with Randi Clausen Aarflot. She is currently working on a textbook in vocal didactics for Gyldendal Publishing House together with Associate Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Kristin Kjølberg.

Bo Skovhus is a Danish singer (baritone). He divides his business between opera, lieder and teaching.  

Skovhus was educated at the Music Conservatory in Aarhus, the Opera Academy in Copenhagen and in New York. After a sensational debut at the Vienna Volksoper in 1988, where he stepped in at short notice in the title role of Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), he quickly made a career on the largest international opera stages, such as the Metropolitan in New York, The Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Paris Opera, as well as the two opera houses in Vienna, at the Salzburg Festival and a number of other festivals. 

Skovhus is also active as an educator, such as at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. He has been a professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music since 2014. 

Ole Christian Haagenrud (born 1989) is one of the most sought after young pianists in Norway. He earned his Artist Diploma from the Norwegian Academy of Music under professors Jens Harald
Bratlie and Håvard Gimse.

In 2014, the year of his debut concert in the University Aula in Oslo, he was awarded the prestigious Robert Levin Festival Prize. In 2017 he gained a place in ArtEx, a cross-genre programme established by Talent Norge and Sparebankstiftelsen DNB focusing on developing careers and artistic integrity.

Ole Christian is a critically acclaimed chamber musician and accompanist, and he regularly performs at major festivals in Norway and abroad. He has already received numerous awards. Among highlights of his career so far are solo performances with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared at prestigious venues such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Vienna Musikverein, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and Shanghai Concert Hall.

The Finnish-Swedish pianist Sofia Wilkman graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Finland in 2012 and later made her debut as a soloist from the Royal Danish Academy of Music. She has since been a sought-after pianist, chamber musician and repetitor, and has played concerts all over Europe and in the United States and collaborates with some of the best Nordic singers. Since 2013, Sofia Wilkman has worked as a repetitor at the Opera Academy at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen.

Pianist Orsi Fajger was born in Kazincbarcika, Hungary, and graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest as a chorus master, music teacher and repetiteur/accompanist. After graduation she joined the Liszt Academy as a professor in the Voice and Woodwind Department, and shortly afterwards she became a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera as well. Since 2010, she has been employed full time at the Royal Danish Opera as a repetiteur and since 2017 she has been working as Head of Music. In the 2022/23 season, she fulfils a role as Interim Casting Consultant at the Opera in Copenhagen. She often gives master classes at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and in 2013 was the official pianist at Placido Domingo’s opera competition ‘The Operalia’. Since 2008, she has participated in Adam Fischer’s ‘Budapest Wagner Days’, where she has been Head of Music Staff since 2014. 

Olesya Tutova is an awardwinner of the international piano and chamber music competitions, educated at the State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. She is permanently employed at Oslo National Academy of the Arts as an opera répétiteur and director of studies.

Olesya accompanied the singers at the International Stanislaw Moniuszko Vocal Competition in 2013 and 2016, the International Tchaikovsky competition in 2015, The Queen Sonja International Music Competition in 2019.

Olesya participated in the Festival ‘Veranos de la villa de Madrid’ (Spain), Saaremaa Opera Festival (Estonia), ‘Prahova Classic Nights’ Festival (Romania), Xanten Opera Festival (Germany), 58th Wiltz Opera Festival (Luxembourg), collaborated with Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico in Madrid, Warsaw National Opera, Wroclaw Opera, Kraków Philharmonic. Olesya has been an opera- répétiteur for the following premieres: Angels in America by Peter Eötvös under Peter Eötvös at Wroclaw Opera (2012), Iolanta by Tchaikovsky under Bassem Akiki at Warsaw National Opera, Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saëns under Jacques Delacôte at Savonlinna Opera festival (2013), Fiery Angel by Prokofiev during Kazushi Ōno at the Aix-en-provence Opera festival (2018), as well as the productions of Spar Dame by Tchaikovsky (2018), Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky (2020, 2023) and L’enfant et les sortileges by Ravel (2023) at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo.

Isabelle Perrin, former co-principal harpist with the Orchestre National de France, has given recitals and concerto performances worldwide leading her to a truly international career. She has also recorded numbers of CD’s, including harp solo repertoire, chamber music and concertos from the 18^th century to contemporary music. A devoted teacher, Isabelle gives masterclasses round the globe and after teaching at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris is now Professor of Harp and Head of Strings at the Norwegian Academy of Music, in Oslo and an appointed Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

President and Artistic Director to the 6^th European Harp Symposium held in France, Isabelle is currently Artistic Director to the WHC, Honorary Associate to the Royal Academy of Music in London and has been knighted in the French Order of the Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.

Erik Groenestein-Hendriks has been the principal harpist with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra since 2013. He played with orchestras around the world with conductors as Haitink, Dudamel, Gardiner and Nelssons. From 2007 until 2010 Erik was the solo harpist of the Orquesta Philharmonica de Santiago (Opera/Ballet) in Chile. 

As a soloist he has been asked to play with orchestras around the world, such as the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Nordica, Musica Vitea, Norrlands opera. 

In 2012 Erik bought an Erard harp. With this instrument he played with well known historical-instrument ensembles such as the Combattimento Consort, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, Anima Eterna, Les Siegles and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. 

As a chamber musician Erik is active with a flute/harp duo with Anders Jonhäll, a viola/flute/harp trio with Tuula Fleivik Nurmo and Håvard Lysebo, and is a member of the Ensemble Caplet a combination of harp, flute and string quartet. This ensemble is mostly playing French repertoire and has been giving concerts everywhere in Europe. 

Since 2015 Erik has taught at the Högskolan för Scen och Musik at the University of Gothenburg. 

*Teaches only some of the days.

Stephen Parker teaches the Alexander Technique to many known musicians and actors in Norway. The Alexander Technique is a practical method for achieving a more effective and balanced use of the self. The principles of the Technique help to increase awareness of how one responds to the varied stimuli of life and to better detect unnecessary and excessive tensions in the tasks performed.  

Stephen runs private practices in Bergen and Oslo, and works with many musicians in several national orchestras in both Norway and Sweden, including the National Opera in Oslo, the Bergen Philharmonic, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Gothenburg Opera. He also has a permanent position at the Norwegian Academy of Music where he teaches both students and teachers. He emphasizes the direct application of the Technique to playing and practicing. 

“Christopher Park is a pianist who captivates with his fascinating technical mastery, astounding musical maturity, and a particularly intense performance style” – this was the explanation given by the jury upon awarding Christopher Park the renowned Leonard Bernstein Award 2014. 

Numerous important ensembles have engaged Park, a German-born musician, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Norwegian National Opera, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, China NCPA Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne, English Chamber Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra and Bamberg Symphony. 

So far he has worked with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Jarvi, Sebastian Weigle, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Ion Marin, James Gaffigan, Zsolt Hamar and Dimitri Kitaenko. He has given concerts all over the world and played at events including the Ravinia Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Klavierfestival Ruhr, the Rheingau Music Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. As soloist he debuted in renowned concert halls in Barbican Centre London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Musikverein & Konzerthaus Vienna, Konserthus Stockholm, Opera Oslo, Müpa Budapest, Gulbenkian Lisboa, Philharmonie Berlin, Seoul Arts Center, Kennedy Center Washington D.C., and others. 

Next to his solo albums with Deutsche Grammophon, his CD with works by Schumann, Stravinsky and Neuwirth is celebrated in European magazines as “brilliant recording” and “reference version”. It is released with Oehms Classics. 

Christopher Park was influenced by two major musical traditions during his studies: the Russian school of Lev Oborin with Lev Natochenny as well as the German school of Wilhelm Kempff with Joachim Volkmann. 

Park was teaching in Frankfurt/Germany at both, the Conservatory and the University of Music and Performing Arts. Since 2021 he holds a professorship at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.