Artists
Sunleif L. Rasmussen (FO)
Composer of the year
In 2002 winning the Nordic Council’s Music Prize for his Symphony No. 1, Oceanic Days (1995), the Faroese composer Sunleif Rasmussen put his wind-swept Atlantic archipelago home on the musical map of the world.
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Among the many prominent orchestras and ensembles commissioning and playing works by Sunleif Rasmussen are the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony OrchestraLapland Chamber Orchestra, the NCA Symphony Orchestra (Ottawa), The Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Avanti, and The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.
Choirs who have or are commissioning new works are Ars Nova Copenhagen, Rias Chamber Choir, Theatre of Voices conducted by Paul Hillier and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble.
Rasmussen’s music has enjoyed the enthusiastic advocacy of many extraordinary conductors and soloists, including John Storgårds, Paul Hillier, Thomas Dausgaard, Osmo Vänskä, Hannu Lintu, recorder player Michala Petri, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, and singers Bo Skovhus and Cyndia Sieden.
In 2008-2009 Sunleif Rasmussen was composer-in-residence for the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra and in the following year (2009-2010), he was composer-in-residence for Ars Nova Copenhagen and in 2011, was awarded ”The Cultural Prize of the Faroe islands,” to youngest recipient to date to have received that honor, the largest on the Islands. In 2002 he founded “Tarira,” a 20-voice choir specializing in the performance of Renaissance and contemporary choral works, and takes pride in supporting and advising the music educational system in his home country and regularly teaches classes at the Faroese Teacher Training College and the University of Faroe Islands.
Anna Bæk Christensen (DK)
soprano
Born in 1998, she grew up in Sorgenfri near Copenhagen and developed an early passion for singing, conducting and piano.
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During her studies in orchestral conducting, she had the opportunity to conduct the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Vokalensemble. At the same time as her conducting studies, she studied classical piano at Talangskolan, MGK, in Copenhagen. She then moved to Stockholm to specialise in choral conducting, but switched to classical singing and completed her Bachelor’s degree in 2022 under Bo Rosenkull and Åsa Bäverstam at the Royal College of Music. Royal College of Music. For the past year, she has been studying singing at master level with Tuva Semmingsen at the Copenhagen Conservatory.
Anna has also been soprano soloist and pianist in The Tolkien Ensemble, and together with the actor, Billy Boyd (Pippin from Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings”), has given concerts at the Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg and the Wiener Konzerthaus.
Gitta-Maria Sjöberg (SE/DK)
soprano
Gitta-Maria Sjöberg is an opera singer and vocal coach. Opera singer and singing teacher. She was born and raised in Sjuntorp
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south of Trollhättan and received her training at the Jyske Musikkonservatorium in Aarhus and the Opera Academy in Copenhagen with Professor Kim Borg. After 26 years as an opera soloist at Det Kgl. Theatre, is now based in Elsinore. With her exceptional voice, soprano Gitta-Maria Sjöberg has been honoured as a guest soloist in large parts of the world, both in opera houses, concert halls and at festivals.
Sjöberg also sings lieder, songs and jazz ballads, and she is a sought-after teacher at many international Master Classes, where young promising talents can benefit from her vast experience.
Gitta-Maria has made many CD and DVD recordings including opera/arias and Nordic songs and songs. Recently Gitta-Maria Sjöberg and her Russian pianist Polina Fradkina have released the recording “Passing Through” with Russian and Danish songs.
Gitta-Maria Sjöberg has been appointed Knight of the Order of Dannebrog 1st degree by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, chairman of the Birgit Nilsson Society since 2013. She is also artistic director of the Nordic Song Festival which opened for the first time in 2014 and is developing by leaps and bounds – this year from 5 – 13 August.
http://www.gittamaria.com
Matti Hirvonen (SE/FI)
piano
Kåre bjørkøy (NO)
Tenor
Kåre Bjørkøy has a master’s degree in Nordic philology and musicology, and in research theory.
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He has studied singing and vocal physiology in Sweden, England and the USA. Kåre Bjørkøy is now Professor Emeritus at the Department of Music, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. KB has been associated with this institution since 1975, where he has taught many of the leading Norwegian classical singers for more than 40 years. In addition, he has been an associate professor of classical singing at the Royal Academy of Music in Jutland for a 3-year period. He has also given masterclasses and singing courses around Scandinavia for a number of years. KB was involved as a teacher from NSF started in Strömsbruk and Hudiksvall for the first 3 years, and he is now back as a teacher in this year’s festival. Over the past 20 years, KB has devoted a lot of time to his own research and dissemination of international research on voice physiology. He has collaborated with several prominent researchers and has also presented his own research at several leading international research conferences.
Kåre Bjørkøy made his debut as an opera singer at the Norwegian Opera in 1976, as Duca in “Rigoletto” by G. Verdi. This led to him being sought after for a series of leading roles in opera productions at the leading opera houses in Scandinavia and France. KB has been equally active as a soloist in a versatile repertoire with leading Scandinavian and British symphony orchestras, and he has been a soloist at Norway’s leading music festivals on a number of occasions. KB has recorded Norwegian and Danish music with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In 1993, KB released his own CD of Nordic romances, “Dikt Som Synger”. KB is still active as a vocal soloist.
Birita Poulsen (FO)
Sopran
The soprano comes from the Faroe Islands, and is an alumna of the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin.
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This year she was a participant of Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie with Thomas Hampson and has participated in masterclasses with Brigitte Fassbaender, Graham Johnson, Hartmut Höll and Kevin Murphy.
At this year’s Händel-Festspiele Karlsruhe, the soprano sang a solo concert with the Deutsche Händel Solisten and last spring she sang Dalinda in Handel’s Ariodante with the Lautten Compagney, Berlin at the Händel-Festspiele Halle. Other operatic roles include Ännchen in C. M. von Weber’s Der Freischütz, Adele in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen and the title role in Alban Berg’s Lulu. In 2020, she sang the role of Lucia in Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with the DSO-Berlin and Robin Ticciati and has sung with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin with Christoph Eschenbach.
In 2021, Birita was awarded „young artist of the year“ by the Faroese government, and she continues to perform regularly in her home country.
Emma Bengtsson (SE)
Conducor
Hans Josefsson
Bas
Stig Fogh Andersen (DK)
TENOR
Stig Fogh Andersen, royal Chamber singer and tenor, was educated at the Music Academies in Aarhus and Copenhagen and
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made his debut at Den Jyske Opera in 1978. In 1980 he was employed as a soloist at the Royal Theatre, and in 2006 he was appointed Royal Chamber Singer. Chamber Singer. Stig Fogh Andersen became one of the world’s most sought-after Wagnerian singers after his breakthrough as Siegfried in Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung at the Danish National Opera in 1994.
Since then, he has sung the role of Siegfried more than 160 times in very different productions on many of the world’s major opera stages. In addition, he has sung the title roles in Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal, Peter Grimes and Otello, as well as the major roles in Die Meistersinger, Maskarade, The Magic Flute, Carmen, Fidelio and The Valkyrie. He has sung in major opera houses in cities such as New York , Zurich, Berlin, Munich, Houston, Mannheim, London, Paris, Tokyo, Helsinki, Buenos Aires, Turin, Amsterdam, Chicago, Seattle and Berlin, as well as guest appearances at festivals such as Bregenz, Verbier, Salzburg, Wels, Munich
Among the international conductors he has sung with are Daniel Barenboim, James Levine, James Conlon, Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Mariss Jansons, Bernard Haitink and Hartmut Haenchen.
In recent years he has sung the Master Singers in Berlin, Parsifal in Paris and Copenhagen, Valkyrian in Salzburg and Hamburg, Siegfried in the Ring in Seattle, Tristan in Copenhagen, Zurich, Hamburg and Wels, Tannhäuser in Copenhagen and Tokyo, Herod in Salome in Munich, Salzburg, Paris and most recently in London.
Besides opera, Stig Fogh Andersen also sings concerts with a broad repertoire ranging from baroque to modern times. CD recordings include Dansk Scenmusik and Wagner’s operas in excerpts with Niels Borksand, Gurrelieder on CD and DVD with Salonen and Jansons respectively, Rinaldo by Brahms, Das Buch mit 7 Siegeln by Franz Schmidt, Wagner’s Ring on DVD and CD.
Stig Fogh Andersen is also a successful director. So far he has directed Bent Lorentzen’s chamber opera Cain and Abel and Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde at the Royal Theatre, Ragnarök at the New Opera and the musical Sweeney Todd at Odense Theatre. He is currently preparing an abridged version of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen for the Copenhagen Opera Festival in August 2023.
Rosa Brynnel
kulerskan & folk singer
For more than three decades, balladeer and folk singer Rosa Moa Brynnel has been making the night sky sparkle with her singing. The fifth generation in a long line of travelling female musicians, she has toured Scandinavia and the UK and released numerous records. Rosa has also been on the UK charts with NÅID and received the Bohuslän Culture Prize.
Susanne Lind
Singer
Mathias Ristholm
Guitar
Octavian Leyva Dragomir (SE/RO)
Piano
He was born in 1997 and grew up in Stockholm with Romanian-Colombian parents. His passion for the art of the novel was already awakened at Lilla Akademiens gymnasium, and his studies then continued at the Royal College of Music with Mats Widlund. Music Academy for Mats Widlund.
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He went on to study at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona, and then focussed on the art of the novel for a year at the Vadstena Song and Piano Academy. After obtaining his Bachelor’s degree from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Academy of Music, he has spent the last year studying at the Academy of Music in Örebro. He has also received guidance in vocal chamber music from, among others, Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg. In 2021, he participated in The Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Voice-Piano Competition and in 2022 became one of the prize winners at the Gothenburg International Piano Competition.
Anna Bæk Christensen and Octavian Leyva Dragomir met during their studies at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Academy of Music in Stockholm, and in January this year they won the newly established “Dorothy Irving Scholarship” of SEK 200,000 and a concert in the Grünewald Hall in Stockholm Concert Hall.
KALLE STENBÄCKEN (SE)
Piano
Kalle Stenbäcken, born and raised in Gothenburg, was educated at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Gothenburg, the Ingesund Academy of Music, the Örebro Academy of Music
and at Vadstena Folk High School.
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He is active as a soloist and chamber musician. with a particular fondness for the romance repertoire, and performs regularly in Sweden and abroad.
In 2020, Kalle made his debut with the solo album Music From a Room with newly written music by Joel Lundberg. The following year he recorded the follow-up Odysseys and
Apostrophes by the same composer, which is expected to be released in spring 2023.
He has appeared on a number of discs as a studio musician, including a complete recording of the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach and the album Nordic Songs with bass-baritone Tobias Fjälling. Tobias Fjälling can be mentioned. Kalle is a frequent soloist and has performed all of Beethoven’s piano concertos.
2018-2020 he was artist in residence with Uddevalla Chamber Orchestra and has previously performed Beethoven’s 4th piano concerto, Mozart’s 23rd piano concerto and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue together with Oscar Fredrik’s Sinfonietta in Gothenburg.
Kalle has received work grants from the Arts Council on several occasions and is now a sought-after mentor and piano teacher in the country. He has previously taught at the Ingesund School of Music and at Bollnäs Folk High School, where he worked as a pianist and piano teacher from 2014 to 2022.
Since 2021, he has been based in Vadstena where he works as a pianist and teacher at Vadstena Sång och Pianoakademi.
Matteo Gobbini (DE/IT)
Piano
Matteo Gobbini was born in Italy in 1992, at the age of six he started playing piano which led him to enter the Conservatory in Perugia in 2007.
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During his times in the conservatory he took part in many chamber music projects, played in the “Festival dei due Mondi” in Spoleto both as a solo pianist and as a chamber musician, sang in vocal ensembles and worked as an accompanist-conductor of two Highschool choirs in Perugia. He decided to broaden his knowledges and moved to Berlin after his graduation in 2013, where he started studying in the the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” with Prof. Fabio Bidini. After completing his Master’s degree under the guidance of Prof. Stefan Arnold, he is now concentrating his studies on chamber music and Liedgestaltung at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe in the class of Prof. Michael Uhde, where he was selected for teaching undergrad students.
In his early years he started to explore and enjoy communicating music among different instruments, worked for a long time as piano accompanist of the Opera coaching classes held by Julia Varady in Berlin. Matteo actively performed both as a soloist and as a chamber musician in Italy and abroad, among others for “Società Dante Alighieri” in Switzerland, “Festival dei due Mondi” di Spoleto (Italy) , “Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte” in Montepulciano (Italy), “Arts for Education” in Tbilisi (Georgia), “Festival internazionale Giovani Concertisti” in Castel Rigone (Italy), “Berliner Philharmonie” for the Educational department and as an audition accompanist.
Örjan Carlsson
Guitar
Idil Alpsoy
Mezzo
Sven-Erik Dahlberg