Oslo Chamber Choir
Biography Oslo Chamber Choir
In 2009, The Oslo Chamber Choir celebrates its 25th anniversary. It was founded by Grete Pedersen and has established itself as one of the leading choirs in Norway, performing different genres of music at a high artistic level. The choir holds a unique position, both nationally and internationally, because of their innovative work with the traditional Norwegian vocal music.
Conductor and Artistic Director, Håkon Daniel Nystedt, grandson of renowned Norwegian conductor/composer, Knute Nystedt, took over directing the choir in 2005. Under Nystedt’s direction, the choir and soloists have become one of Norway’s premier musical performers.
In 2005, the choir was invited to the World Symposium on Choral Music in Kyoto, Japan, where it performed several successful Norwegian folk music concerts. Since then the Oslo Chamber Choir has performed in Denmark (2006), Minnesota USA (2007), Italy (2008), and Japan (2008). Wherever in the world this repertoire is presented, the response from the audience is strikingly similar - this music goes directly to the heart.
HÅKON DANIEL NYSTEDT (conductor)
Håkon Daniel Nystedt (born 1980) has been the artistic director of the Oslo Chamber Choir since 2005. Apart from his work with the Oslo Chamber Choir, he works primarily with orchestras. He studied at The Norwegian Academy of Music with Grete Pedersen and Ole Kristian Ruud. At the moment he lives in Copenhagen where he is specializing in opera conducting, studying with the Italian conductor Giancarlo Andretta. Nystedt has worked with several of Norway’s professional orchestras, and in 2007 he received The Norwegian Radio Orchestra’s prize for young talents.
BJØRN SIGURD GLORVIGEN (soloist)
Bjørn Sigurd Glorvigen (born1972) is a Norwegian folk singer (“Kveder”) from the small mountain village Dovre in Gudbrandsdalen. He has lived in Oslo for the last ten years where he studied music at the University of Oslo and at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Bjørn Sigurd's career started as a member of the folk-jazz band “Østenfor Sol”, a group which made use of lyrics in Dovre dialect combined with melodic, jazz-inspired melodies. Glorvigen had been a member of Oslo Chamber Choir from 1998 until 2008. He has had a central role in the choir’s folk music projects because of his stylistic knowledge and his soloist engagements.
LIV ULVIK (soloist)
Liv Ulvik (born 1979) is a highly educated singer that has specialized in Norwegian traditional singing. She has been working both in - and outside Europe for some years. She likes using the traditional music in old and new ways, and is cooperating with jazz musicians and classical musicians as well as other traditional musicians. She is also working with actors and dancers, in both improvised and non-improvised performances. Her last theatre engagement was on the Norwegian National Theatre.
