Kringkastingsorkestret

Norwegian Radio Orchestra

The Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK) is the orchestra of the entire country, known for its broad repertoire, flexibility, and strong ties to NRK. The ensemble performs at an international level and moves effortlessly between symphonic repertoire, contemporary music, pop, rock, jazz, and folk music—often in collaboration with leading artists from many genres. Since its establishment in 1946, KORK has been a central part of Norwegian music and media history and continues to be a fixture at major cultural and television events. Today, the orchestra is assembled from some of the country's foremost instrumentalists, known for their playfulness, versatility, and high artistic quality. Holly Hyun Choe will be the new chief conductor from January 2026.

Conductor

Holly Hyun Choe

Holly Hyun Choe is a South Korean-American conductor based in Germany, known for her radiant presence and energetic musicality that leaves its mark on everything she touches. After two years as assistant conductor of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, she has established herself as one of the most exciting young voices on the international conducting scene and will make her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2025. Choe is chief conductor of Ensemble Reflektor and Artiste associée at the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, and is particularly known for her commitment to female composers. From January 2026, she will be the new chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.​​

Violin and Hardanger Fiddle 

Ragnhild Hemsing

Ragnhild Hemsing is one of Norway's most unique musicians, equally at home in the classical repertoire and in the Norwegian folk music tradition. She has made the Hardanger fiddle a natural part of her artistry, and in 2025/26 she will premiere three new concertos written especially for the instrument – the first in 60 years. Hemsing regularly performs as a soloist with leading orchestras and tours with projects such as Peer Gynt and Norwegian Seasons, which have also received considerable attention on her recordings on Berlin Classics. She is co-founder and artistic director of the Hemsing Festival in Valdres, and plays a Ruggeri violin from 1694 and a Hardanger fiddle that once belonged to Ole Bull.

Accordion

Gabriel Fliflet

Gabriel Fliflet is a colorful musician and composer whose main instrument is the accordion, and who has had a long career in various forms of folk music. He is known for the playful interplay in the duo Fliflet/Hamre, where inspiration from the Balkans meets his own musical narrative. Fliflet has collaborated with a number of artists, including Berit Opheim, Knut Reiersrud, Benedicte Maurseth, and Jan Eggum, and has written several commissioned works. In 2011, he was named Folk Musician of the Year, and he is the long-time musical host of Columbi Egg in Bergen.

Quartet

Gabriels Novgorod

Gabriels Novgorod is a quartet consisting of Gabriel Fliflet (accordion, vocals), David Chelsom Vogt (violin, vocals), Kristoffer Chelsom Vogt (double bass, vocals) and Jørgen Sandvik (guitar, vocals). The ensemble highlights ethnic popular music from the Baltic Sea region, Finnish humppa, Yiddish tango, Russian waltzes, and northern Swedish swing—all performed with warmth, temperament, and polyphonic singing in several languages. Their repertoire is drawn from the treasure trove of music from the 1930s to the 1960s, and their concerts are known for their drive, their storytelling joy and their surprising elements. 

Quartet

Messiaen Quartet Copenahagen

The Messiaen Quartet Copenhagen is one of Scandinavia's leading chamber music quartets. Its unique instrumentation: clarinet, violin, cello, and piano - opens up a varied and innovative repertoire, including both world premieres by Nordic composers and the quartet's own arrangements of well-known works. Since 2018, the ensemble has held a series of concerts in Scandinavia and Europe, and has also made a name for itself with recordings, including a critically acclaimed Debussy album.

From 2024 to 2026, they will be the artistic directors of the Båstad Chamber Music Festival. 

Cello

Tanja Tetzlaff

Tanja Tetzlaff is one of the leading cellists of her generation, renowned for her deep musicality and powerful, refined tonal language. She combines artistic innovation with strong social engagement, notably expressed in the film Suites for a Suffering World, winner of the Opus Klassik Innovation Award 2023. She performs internationally with leading orchestras and conductors and plays a central role in both the Tetzlaff Quartet and the Tetzlaff Trio. Since 2024, she has been Professor of Cello at the Bremen University of the Arts and performs on a 1776 Guadagnini cello.

Piano

Thormod Rønning Kvam

Thormod Rønning Kvam is a Norwegian pianist with an international profile and a strong drive to renew the presentation of classical music. In recent years, he has established himself at the top of the Scandinavian music scene, with performances at venues including Wigmore Hall, the Norwegian National Opera, Stockholm Concert Hall, and Harpa in Reykjavík. He will make his solo debut at the Bergen International Festival in 2026. Kvam has been awarded the Norwegian Government’s two-year Artist Grant for Young Artists and has received recognition for his distinctive artistic voice and commitment as a communicator. He is also the artistic director of the Aulaseriene concert series in Oslo, Bergen, and at Ramme.

Choir

Helsinki Chamber Choir

Helsinki Chamber Choir is a professional chamber choir and GRAMMY Award winner, originally founded as the Finnish Radio Chamber Choir in 1962. Its repertoire spans from the Renaissance to contemporary music, with the ensemble particularly renowned for its work with new music and its many award-winning recordings. The choir tours regularly in Europe and the United States and collaborates with leading orchestras, festivals, and contemporary music ensembles. It also frequently appears in productions for the Finnish broadcaster Yle and has had Nils Schweckendiek as its artistic director since 2007.

Conductor

Nils Schweckendiek

Nils Schweckendiek is an internationally acclaimed conductor based in Helsinki. He made his debut at the Finnish National Opera in 2006 and has since worked with leading opera houses and festivals across Europe, the United States, and China. Schweckendiek is a prominent advocate for contemporary music, having led more than 100 world premieres and receiving a GRAMMY Award in 2024 for Kaija Saariaho’s Reconnaissance. He is the artistic director of the Helsinki Chamber Choir, a professor at the Sibelius Academy, and has been honoured with the Fredrik Pacius Prize, the Madetoja Prize, and the Finnish Conductor of the Year Award.

Singer

Martin Steinum Brun

Martin Steinum Brun is a singer and tradition bearer from Vågå, known for his strong stage presence and his ability to convey the many narratives of Norwegian folk song – from the humorous to the deeply personal. He also performs on traditional instruments such as the kraviklyre and the bygdeharpe.

Martin is a distinctive voice on the young Norwegian folk music scene. He was named Young Folk Musician of the Year at the Folkelarm Awards 2024 and won the A Class in vocal folk music at the Landskappleiken 2025. He also works across genres and has collaborated with ensembles such as the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra.

Author

Ruth Lillegraven

Ruth Lillegraven is an author from Granvin in Hardanger. Since her debut in 2005, she has established herself as a versatile and prolific writer, with more than 20 books for both adults and children – ranging from poetry and novels to crime fiction.

She received the Brage Prize in 2013 for her poetry collection Urd, and her books have been translated into numerous languages. Lillegraven has also collaborated with several musicians, including Rannveig Djønne, Annlaug Børsheim and Benedicte Maurseth, and in recent years has become a distinctive and widely appreciated voice in contemporary Norwegian literature.

Hardanger fiddle

Benedicte Mauseth

Benedicte Maurseth is a Hardanger fiddle player, composer and author, whose artistic work is rooted in the traditional music of Hardanger. She trained as an apprentice under master fiddler Knut Hamre and is known for an expressive approach that opens folk music towards contemporary practices, improvisation and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Maurseth has composed a number of commissioned works and has toured internationally as a soloist and with various ensembles. She has released several critically acclaimed albums on ECM, Hubro and Heilo. Her solo album Hárr (2022) received the Nordic Music Prize, and its follow-up Mirra (2025) has attracted considerable attention.

Percussion

Håkon Stene

Håkon Stene is an award-winning percussionist specialising in contemporary and early music. He has established himself as one of the leading percussionists in the Nordic region, with a wide range of solo and ensemble-based projects. Stene has collaborated with ensembles and orchestras such as Ensemble Modern, the London Sinfonietta and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, and has contributed to numerous recordings on labels including ECM, Hubro and Rough Trade. He is Professor of Percussion at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg.

Bass

Mats Eilertsen

Mats Eilertsen is a bassist, composer and bandleader, and one of the most sought-after jazz musicians in Norway. He is known for a lyrical and attentive approach to the double bass, with a strong emphasis on ensemble playing and tonal nuance. Eilertsen has appeared on more than one hundred recordings and leads several of his own projects. He has received the Spellemann Award and was awarded the Buddy Prize in 2022.

Piano

Morten Qvenild

Morten Qvenild is a pianist, composer and producer with a genre-crossing artistic practice. Since the late 1990s, he has been a central figure in European jazz and contemporary music, both as a soloist and through a wide range of bands and collaborations. Qvenild combines acoustic instruments with music technology and also works extensively with songwriting, improvisation and studio production. He has toured internationally and has contributed to around one hundred recordings.

Photographer

Knut Utler

Knut Utler is a journalist and photographer. He worked for many years in the culture section of Aftenposten, specialising in music, before becoming a freelance journalist in 2004. As a photographer, Utler has over the past twenty years documented the Norwegian and Nordic folk music scene, building an extensive and distinctive archive.

He has worked as a photographer at numerous major festivals and competitions, and since its founding in 2010 has been the principal photographer at Riksscenen – the national venue for folk music and dance in Norway. Utler has also worked extensively with classical music, including responsibility for PR and documentation for the Lindeman Foundation since 2006. From 2017 to 2023, he served as festival photographer for Hardanger Musikkfest.

Trio

District Musicians of Voss

The District Musicians of Voss form a central part of the musical life of the region and maintain a rich and diverse practice as performers, educators and communicators.

Violinist Helga Hjetland, flautist Øystein Haga and pianist Kato Flem combine high artistic quality with strong local roots. With backgrounds from leading music institutions in Norway and abroad, and extensive experience from orchestral work, chamber music, freelance performance and teaching, they are known for their attentive ensemble playing, tonal richness and communicative joy. As district musicians in Voss, they contribute actively to the concert scene, the municipal school of music and arts, and regional collaborations, and are key driving forces in the development of a vibrant and inclusive musical life in Vestland.

Composer

Tze Yeoung Ho

Tze Yeung Ho is a Norwegian composer whose multicultural background informs both his thinking and artistic expression. His music is rooted in the encounter between language and sound—particularly phonetics and the dialogue between Scandinavian, Finno-Ugric and Chinese literature - and often operates in the tension between differing understandings and misunderstandings.

He was invited by Moderna Museet to create a music theatre production for the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024, and has recently been appointed Artistic Director of Borealis – a festival for experimental music.

Composer

Morten Christophersen

Morten Christophersen is a Norwegian composer and arranger whose work spans a wide range of formats, from oratorios and orchestral works to choral, chamber and film music. He has written for institutions such as the Oslo Philharmonic, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet, and his music has been performed across the Nordic countries, Europe, the United States and Taiwan.

Alongside his work as a composer, Christophersen teaches at the University of Oslo, where he holds a PhD on Johan Svendsen’s compositional technique. He is currently completing a new oratorio for the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Olavsfest.

Singer

Ingunn Dalland

Ingunn Dalland is a vocalist from Vinnes by the Bjørnafjord, now based in Oslo. She is a versatile singer with a broad range across pop, soul and jazz, and has fronted several well-known bands, including Superband, Polyester and Down Low Disco. She has also appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the Norwegian Wind Ensemble, Sandvika Big Band and Prime Time Orchestra.

As a backing vocalist, Ingunn has collaborated with a number of leading names in Norwegian music, including Bernhoft, CC Cowboys, Ylvis and Noora Noor. She is known for her warm, soulful voice and an energetic stage presence that moves and uplifts audiences.