Grex Vocalis / Carl Hogset
Biographie Grex Vocalis / Carl Hogset
Grex Vocalis — ( The Singing Flock ) — was formed in 1971. The repertoire spans from renaissance to contemporary Norwegian music. The choir has been awarded the “Norwegian Grammy' for three of its 13 albums and won 1st prizes in national and international contests: Arezzo, Gorizia, Tolosa and Marktoberdorf.
In 1999 Grex Vocalis was awarded 'Il Gran Premio Città di Arezzo' as the best choir in that years contest. Over the years Grex Vocalis has commissioned and premiered works by several Norwegian composers but also performed important baroque works like Handel: Messiah, Bach: Christmas Oratorio, Rameau: In convertendo, Quam dilecta, Charpentier: Te Deum, Lully: Te Deum, Delalande: Te Deum etc with orchestra and soloists. The first Norwegian recording of Handels Messiah was released in 1997 with Grex Vocalis and Oslo Baroque Orchestra.
Two of Grex Vocalis' recent CDs, 'Magnum Mysterium' with Christmas music from across Europe and 'Liberté' with works by Francis Poulenc have been highly acclaimed both home and abroad. A new CD with choral works by Edvard Grieg will be relased August 2007, commemorating the 100 years since Grieg's death.
The choir has held concerts in most of Europe and has toured Japan twice, most recently in 2005. In 2007, Grex Vocalis was European guest artist in the America Cantat festival in Havana, Cuba.
The conductor Carl Høgset founded the choir in 1971. He holds degrees in languages and musicology from the University of Oslo as well as in voice and choral conducting from the Norwegian Academy of Music. In 1977 he made his debut as a countertenor in a solo recital in Oslo. His solo-CD recording with songs by Purcell, Handel, Grieg and Nordheim was released in 1995. He is a member of the vocal quartet Quattro Stagioni. After retiring from Foss College of Music in Oslo , Mr. Høgset continues to hold lectures and seminars on voice and choral conducting home and abroad.
Since 1992 he has been involved in voice research with professor Johan Sundberg of the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Carl Høgset has created the Singing Technique program presented in a booklet including exercises recorded on CD and video. This booklet has been translated into English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Swedish.
