The Norwegian Soloists' Choir, Ensemble Allegria & Grete Pedersen
Biography The Norwegian Soloists' Choir, Ensemble Allegria & Grete Pedersen
The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir (Det Norske Solistkor)
is one of Scandinavia’s foremost chamber choirs and one of Norway’s most eminent ensembles in any genre. The choir is equally at home in the classical/romantic repertoire and in contemporary music, making regular excursions into folk-derived music and National Romantic works.
The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir was founded in 1950 by the composer Knut Nystedt, who was its conductor for forty years. In 1990 he was succeeded by Grete Pedersen, who remains the choir’s artistic director to this day.
The choir comprises 26 highly trained singers, all potential soloists in various genres as well as fully embracing the art of ensemble singing. In recent years the choir has collaborated with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, RIAS Kammerchor, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. This is the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir’s fifth recording for BIS.
Ensemble Allegria
Allegria (ital.) means a merriment and enjoyment, and indeed it was the pleasure of playing together that led a group of music students to launch the orchestra in 2007. Ensemble Allegria is comprised of around 20 musicians between 21-30 years of age.
Since its beginning, the orchestra has been managed independently by its own members, with the Norwegian Academy of Music playing a significant supportive role. Its permanent concertmaster and artistic director is Maria Angelika Carlsen.
In addition to its own concerts, Ensemble Allegria has performed at a number of festivals, among them, Bergen International Festival, Hardanger Music Festival, and the Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival. It has collaborated with internationally known soloists, such as Tine Thing Helseth, Christian Ihle Hadland, Martin Fröst, and Arve Tellefsen, and it has engaged in projects in collaboration with the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, the Oslo Cathedral Choir, and Oslo Sinfonietta.
In the autumn of 2012, Ensemble Allegria received the Statoil Talent Award for classical music.
Grete Pedersen
The Norwegian conductor Grete Pedersen is one of the most renowned conductors in the international choral scene. Since 1990 Grete Pedersen is Music Director of the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir whose recordings were awarded the ‘Choc de la Musique’ and the ‘Prix d'Or’ from Diapason. In 1984, she founded the Oslo Chamber Choir which she directed until 2004.
Pedersen is a demanded guest conductor and has worked with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Swedish Radio Choir, Netherlands Radio Chor, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Danish National Vocal Ensemble and Choir, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Pro Coro Canada, World Youth Choir among others. Future engagements include the project “150 psalms” together with the Norwegian Soloists Choir, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Choir of Trinity Wall Street and The Tallis Scholars in Utrecht in September 2017, New York in November 2017 and Brussels in March 2018.
Pedersen's name stands for productions and stagings with wide stylistic variety. Her contrasting concert programmes are known to often be a rather radical mixture. In addition to premiering contemporary musical works, her efforts have increasingly been directed towards larger productions for choir and orchestra.
BIS Records has released numerous recordings by Grete Pedersen and the Norwegian Soloists Choir with works by Per Norgard, Kaija Saariaho, Iannis Xenakis, Helmut Lachenmann, Alfred Janson, J.S. Bach, Knut Nystedt, Alban Berg, Olivier Messiaen, Fartein Valen, Anton Webern, Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Edvard Grieg and Norwegian Folk Music.
Grete Pedersen completed her postgraduate studies in conducting at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo and has also studied chorus conducting with Eric Ericson and orchestra conducting with Kenneth Kiesler. She currently teaches as a professor in conducting at the Norwegian State Academy of Music and is a sought-after teacher for masterclasses.
For her engagement in the Scandinavian cultural environment Grete Pedersen has been awarded the renowned Norwegian Telenor Cultural Prize 2017.
