Bjarte Engeset

About Bjarte Engeset

Bjarte Engeset (Born in Ørsta, Norway) studied conducting with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy (diploma exam in 1989). In 1991 he attended the Tanglewood Music Center in the USA, with teachers such as Seiji Ozawa and Gustav Meier.   In the period 2014—2020, Engeset was the artistic director of the Royal Norwegian Navy Band. Engeset has previously been chief conductor and artistic director of the Ålesund Symphony Orchestra, Tromsø Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Wind Ensemble and DalaSinfoniettan, and has been a permanent guest conductor with the Flemish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Brussels Philharmonic). He has also been artistic director of the Northern Lights Festival, Opera Nord and the festival Fjord Cadenza.    Engeset has conducted all the professional orchestras in Norway, including the Norwegian Opera & Ballet. He has also guest conducted a substantial number of leading orchestras in the Nordics, Europe and the USA, including orchestras like the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Peters-burg Philharmonic, the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. 

Engeset has recorded more than 40 CDs, a large part of which is with music by Norwegian composers such as Johan Svendsen, Christian Sinding, Ludvig Irgens–Jensen, Oscar Borg and Geirr Tveitt. For the company Naxos, he has recorded all of Edvard Grieg's works for orchestra (8 CDs) with the Royal Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra. Engeset has also recorded music by, among others, Carl Nielsen, Jean Sibelius, Sergej Prokofjev and Percy Grainger, in addition to contemporary composers such as Nils Lindberg, Piet Swerts, Herman Vogt and Magne Hegdal.    Since 2014, Engeset has been Editor in Chief of the project Norwegian Music Heritage, which produces critical editions of Norwegian music.   From 2014 to 2020, he was the chief conductor of KNMM. During this period, The RNNB has recorded several CDs with Engeset as conductor, including Percy Grainger's complete music for winds. During this time, he led RNNB's largest productions, including the annual Fireworks Concerts with soloists such as José Carreras, Lise Davidsen, and Melody Gardot. He also conducted the world premiere of Krigsseilerrekviem in 2022. 

Bjarte Engeset is professor of conducting at the University of Stavanger and head of the faculty's conducting section. He has been associated with UiS since 2019. Engeset has for a number of years led master classes in conducting at home and abroad. In recent years, he has, for example, taught at the Conductor's Week in Stavanger (since 2013), at the Norwegian initiative "Dirigentløftet", at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels.