Woven Fingerprints – Orchestral Works by Therese Ulvo

Therese Birkelund Ulvo

Therese Birkelund Ulvo (b. 1982, Bergen) has distinguished herself over the past decade through large-scale works and is one of the few Norwegian composers of her generation whose music is regularly performed by the major Norwegian orchestras. Her music is often inspired by other art forms such as film, text, and sound art. She has a close relationship with Norwegian traditional music, in which microtonality, rhapsodic elements and open forms can be found. Her works are frequently performed both in Norway and internationally.

Ulvo was appointed Intro composer with Rikskonsertene from 2011 to 2013. In 2015 she received the Young Lindeman Prize. At the International Rostrum of Composers in Wrocław, Poland, in 2016, her work Shadows and Shields was selected as a Recommended Work and was recommended for radio broadcast across the Rostrum’s 30 participating countries. In October 2017, Ulvo became the first composer chosen for Talent Norge’s KUPP programme, a development and networking programme for emerging composers. In 2020 she received the Edvard Prize for her orchestral work In the Cage. In 2024 she was awarded the Arne Nordheim Composer Prize.

Therese Birkelund Ulvo has been artistic director of Hardanger Musikkfest since 2014.

Ellen Ugelvik

Ellen Ugelvik is a pianist who specialises in developing and performing new projects in cooperation with contemporary composers and artists. Ugelvik works as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, USA and Asia, and her commitment to contemporary music is widely recognised. She was named 'Performer of the year 2016' by The Norwegian Society of Composers. In the periods 2008-2011 and 2017-2020 she received a state grant for performing artists, one of the most coveted awards in Norway.

Ugelvik has performed as a soloist with the most important orchestras and ensembles in Norway, in addition to international ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Resonanz and Prague Music Performance Ensemble. She is a member of the ensembles asamisimasa and Jagerflygel.

Her first solo album, “George Crumb: Makrokosmos" (released on Grappa) was awarded the Spellemann (Norwegian recording industry) prize for Best contemporary album in 2008. She has also won two Spellemann prizes with her ensemble asamisimasa, for the albums ”Pretty Sound” (music by Simon Steen-Andersen) and “Neon Forest Space – asamisimasa plays the music of Øyvind Torvund”.

Alongside her freelance career, Ugelvik is Professor of contemporary music performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music, where she also leads NordART/Arne Nordheim Centre for Artistic Research. She completed a Ph.D. in artistic research in 2018, in which she premiered five new piano concertos.

Andreas Ulvo

Andreas Ulvo is a Norwegian jazz pianist, keyboardist and composer known for a musical language that moves fluidly between jazz, classical music and Nordic folk traditions. Born in 1983, he holds a Master's degree in improvised music and jazz from the Norwegian Academy of Music, though he has described his own relationship to formal training as unconventional: rather than developing strong sight-reading skills, he found that improvising came more naturally to him than reading notation, and this instinct has shaped his approach to composition and performance ever since. 

 Ulvo has built his career largely through collaborative ensembles. He is a longstanding member of Eple Trio, with which he has released multiple albums between 2007 and 2020, and he has performed and recorded with Andreas Ulvo + Slagr and the project Lost in Space, alongside musicians including Henriksen, Aase and Pessi. He has also worked with the Mathias Eick Quintet, the Karl Seglem Acoustic Quartet and Frøy Aagre Electric. Across these projects he has toured extensively throughout Europe, as well as in Japan and India, appearing at jazz festivals and concert venues over more than a decade. His discography spans nine albums released between 2007 and 2023, encompassing both solo and ensemble work.

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

The Bergen Philharmonic, a Norwegian national orchestra, is one of the oldest in the world, dating back to 1765. Edvard Grieg was its artistic director from 1880 to 1882. Edward Gardner was Chief Conductor from 2015 to 2024 and is now Honorary Conductor. Sir Mark Elder is Principal Guest Conductor, Jan Willem de Vriend is Artistic Partner and Rasmus Hella Mikkelsen is Assistant Conductor.

The orchestra enjoys a high international standing through recordings, touring and commissions. Gramophone nominated it Orchestra of the Year in 2020 and 2025, and in 2021 it won two Gramophone Classical Music Awards: Recording of the Year and Opera Award for Britten’s Peter Grimes. In recent seasons it has played at the Concertgebouw, the BBC Proms, the Wiener Musikverein, Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie and the Berlin Philharmonie. Its Peter Grimes production was acclaimed at the Edinburgh International Festival (2017) and the Royal Festival Hall (2019), and its 2022 Salome was hailed as a highlight in Edinburgh.

The orchestra’s recordings include Messiaen’s Turangalîla, Stravinsky’s ballets, Prokofiev, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Nielsen and the complete orchestral music of Grieg. Under Gardner it recorded Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass (Grammy-nominated), Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder, Bartók and Brahms. A 2023 recording of Delius’s Eine Messe des Lebens with Sir Mark Elder won a Spellemannprisen. 

Through the free streaming service Bergenphilive.no, audiences can hear the orchestra with leading conductors and soloists.

Edward Gardner

Edward Gardner was Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic from 2015 to 2024, and led the orchestra on multiple international tours, including performances in Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam, and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival. He was appointed Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2021, and Music Director of The Norwegian Opera and Ballet in 2024. As guest conductor, he has appeared with many orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Royal Opera House and The Philharmonia Orchestra.

Gardner was Music Director of English National Opera for ten years (2006–15); he has an ongoing relationship with New York's Metropolitan Opera, and has conducted at La Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opéra National de Paris. Born in Gloucester in 1974, Edward was educated at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music. His many accolades include being named Royal Philharmonic Society Award Conductor of the Year (2008), an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2009) and receiving an OBE for Services to Music in the Queen's Birthday Honours (2012).

Norwegian Radio Orchestra

The Norwegian Radio Orchestra is known as 'the whole country’s orchestra' and is today regarded with a unique combination of respect and affection by its music-loving audience. With its remarkably diverse repertoire, it is the orchestra most listened to throughout Norway — on radio, television, and online, and at various venues around the country. It is a flexible orchestra, performing everything from symphonic and contemporary classical music to pop, rock, folk, and jazz. 

Each year the orchestra performs together with internationally acclaimed artists at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, aired to millions of viewers worldwide. The orchestra was founded by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation in 1946. Petr Popelka was the orchestra’s Chief Conductor from 2020 to 2023. From 2026, Holly Hyun Choe is the orchestra's Chief Conductor.

Jeri Lynne Johnson

Jeri Lynne Johnson is a conductor, composer and cultural entrepreneur. A graduate of Wellesley College and the University of Chicago, she studied conducting with Sir Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, and Daniel Barenboim. In 2005 she became the first African American woman to win an international conducting prize when she received the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship. She has since led major orchestras and opera companies including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Santa Fe Opera. In addition to her work with classical and contemporary music she has collaborated with artists such as Jay Z, Solange Knowles, Alicia Keys and The Roots. In 2022 she conducted Tania León’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Stride at the Kennedy Center Honors.

In 2008 Johnson founded the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra as a model for a 21st century ensemble rooted in artistic excellence and civic engagement. Under her leadership, Black Pearl has earned eleven National Endowment for the Arts grants and national recognition for its innovative community centered approach.

Stavanger Symphony Orchestra

Stavanger Symphony Orchestra is located on Norway's southwest coast, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (SSO) performs in Stavanger Concert Hall, regarded as one of the finest acoustic venues in Europe. Andris Poga has been the orchestra's Chief Conductor since the 2021–22 season. Recent guest conductors have included Karina Canellakis, Pablo Heras-Casado, James Gaffigan, Dalia Stasevska, Fabien Gabel, Jan Willem de Vriend, and Andrew Manze.

The orchestra has released a substantial catalogue under SSO Recordings, in addition to acclaimed albums of Scandinavian music for BIS and baroque repertoire with Fabio Biondi for Naïve. SSO has toured in Japan, the United States, Germany, Finland and the Netherlands. Early music has been a key artistic pillar for the orchestra. Frans Brüggen served as Artistic Director for Early Music from 1990–1997, followed by Philippe Herreweghe (2000–2004) and Fabio Biondi (2006–2016).

The orchestra was nominated for a Spellemann Award in 2018 and for a Grammy Award in 2020, for Gisle Kverndokk's Symphonic Dances.

Founded in 1938, the orchestra today consists of 85 musicians representing 24 nationalities.

Andris Poga

Andris Poga was the Chief Conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra for the period from 2021 to 2026. He was the Music Director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 2013 till 2021 and continues to collaborate with the LNSO as its Artistic Advisor.

Highlights of recent years have included concerts with the leading orchestras of Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Scandinavia. After the first successful collaborations he has become a regular guest at the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester Hamburg, WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and many others. He has also conducted the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Gewandhaus-orchester, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmo-nic, Sydney Symphony and Dallas Symphony.

In 2010, Andris Poga was the First Prize winner of the Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition, which thrust him into the international scene. He became an assistant to Paavo Järvi at the Orchestre de Paris and he also served as the assistant conductor for the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Poga graduated from the conducting department of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. He studied philosophy at the University of Latvia and conducting at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts.

Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra

On 27 September 1919, a new orchestra took to the stage of the old Logan Hall in Oslo to give its first public concert. Conductor Georg Schnéevoigt presided over thrilling performances of Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto and Christian Sinding's First Symphony. After forty years of making-do, the Norwegian capital had at last got the orchestra it deserved. The Oslo Philharmonic was born. In the eight months that followed, the Oslo Philharmonic gave 135 concerts, most of which sold out. It tackled passionate Mahler, glistening Debussy and thrusting Nielsen.

Soon, world famous musicians were coming to conduct it, relishing its youth and enthusiasm. Igor Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel visited Oslo to coach the musicians through brand new music. National broadcaster NRK began to hang microphones at the orchestra's concerts, transmitting them to the whole of Norway.

Over the next half-century, the Oslo Philharmonic's reputation grew steadily. Then, in 1979, it changed forever. A young Latvian arrived in Norway, taking the orchestra apart section-by-section, putting it back together a finely tuned machine with a whole new attitude. Under Mariss Jansons, the orchestra became a rival to the great Philharmonics of Vienna, Berlin and New York. It was soon playing everywhere, from Seattle to Salzburg, Lisbon to London. Back home in Oslo, it got a modern, permanent concert hall of its own. In 1986, EMI drew up the largest orchestral contract in its history, ensuring the world would hear the rich, visceral sound of the Oslo Philharmonic. Three decades after that, the world is still listening. The Oslo Philharmonic retains its spirit of discovery and its reputation for finesse. 

Under Jukka-Pekka Saraste it cultivated even more the weight and depth that Jansons had instilled; under Vasily Petrenko, it worked at the highest levels of detail and style. Under Klaus Mäkelä's leadership from 2020 to 2026, the orchestra recorded all of the Sibelius symphonies and Shostakovich's symphonies Nos. 4–6. The orchestra also collaborated with Janine Jansen on Sibelius's Violin Concerto and Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto. During the same period, the orchestra toured regularly and performed at major international festivals, including the BBC Proms in 2022. Today, the Oslo Philharmonic performs more than 130 concerts annually in Oslo and around the world.  

Vasily Petrenko

Vasily Petrenko is one of the most significant and galvanizing musicians of our time. He became famous for his transformative work at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the oldest orchestra in the United Kingdom, where he refashioned the orchestra’s sound, reconnected it to its home city and presided over a huge increase in ticket sales. He quickly came to represent a new generation of conductors who combine uncompromising artistry with a passion for communication and inclusion.

Born in St Petersburg in 1976, he trained at the city’s famous conservatoire and took part in a master-class with Mariss Jansons, who helped establish the Oslo Philharmonic as one of the world’s great orchestras. After winning a number of competitions, he became Chief Conductor of the St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra in 2004.

Petrenko is a highly acclaimed recording artist, with numerous accolades, including two Gramophone Awards, for his recordings of Russian repertoire. With the Oslo Philharmonic he has recorded Shostakovich and Szymanowski concertos and a major cycle of Scriabin’s orchestral works.

He has conducted the London, Sydney, Chicago, Vienna, San Francisco and NHK Symphony Orchestras, as well as at the Zürich, Paris and Hamburg Operas and Glyndebourne. Gramophone named him Young Musician of the Year in 2007, and in 2010 he received the Classical Brit Award as Male Musician of the Year.