Eyvind Alnæs Songs, Vol. 1

Marianne Beate Kielland

Marianne Beate Kielland studied at The Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo with Ingrid Bjoner and Svein Bjørkøy and earned a master’s degree in contemporary music in 2000. She has also studied with Oren Brown and Barbara Bonney. After completing her professional training she sang with the Hanover State Opera during the 2001/02 season before moving to Harstad and later to Svolvær, Norway. She quickly established a solid professional reputation and is now regarded as one of Europe’s foremost singers, working frequently with leading orchestras and on opera stages in Norway and throughout the world. Kielland regularly performs on the concert stages of Europe, Asia and America under such conductors as René Jacobs, Fabio Biondi, Jordi Savall, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Masaaki Suzuki, Herbert Blomstedt, Jukka Pekka Saraste and Andrew Manze.

In 2012 her CD recording Veslemøy Synsk (on which she collaborated with Nils Anders Mortensen) was nominated for a Grammy award in the category Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Thanks to this and over 70 other recordings, as well as her many performances on concert and opera stages, she has established herself as a distinguished interpreter of repertoire from the baroque period to the present day. Kielland was Artistic Director of the Oslo Chamber Music Festival from 2022 to 2025, and is Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

Ann-Helen Moen

Norwegian soprano Ann–Helen Moen is a versatile singer, known for her musical interpretations of a broad repertoire ranging from the early baroque to the great Romantic composers and contemporary music. She performs both in concert halls and on the opera stage, and her career has taken her to venues in cities as far afield as Tokyo and New York.

She is especially renowned for her Mozart interpretations, both operatic roles and lieder. Together with Liv Glaser on fortepiano she has recorded Mozart’s Lieder for SIMAX Classics. She performs regularly with all the Norwegian and Danish orchestras, and collaborates with pianists such as Christian Ihle Hadland and Håvard Gimse. Conductors she has sung with include Ed Gardner, Masaaki Suzuki, William Christie, Harry Christophers, Sir Andrew Davis, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Kristjan Järvi, Andrew Litton and Susanna Mälkki.

Moen studied with Susanna Eken at the Opera Academy in Copenhagen. Upon completing her studies, she was engaged as a soloist at the Graz Opera in Austria for three years. In 2021 she was appointed Associate Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.

Nils Anders Mortensen

Nils Anders Mortensen is a Norwegian pianist renowned for his versatility and expressive playing. Born in Flekkefjord in 1971, he began playing the piano at three, won the Norwegian Young Pianist Competition in 1986, and studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, the École Normale in Paris and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover.

In 1996 Concerts Norway named him "Debutant of the Year", leading to an extensive national tour. He has since performed in the United States, Germany, Russia, Hungary and the Baltic states, and appeared as soloist with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra at the Bergen International Festival in 1998.

Based in Alta since 1998, Mortensen moves freely between classical and contemporary music, jazz, folk and crossover. He has worked closely with mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland, violinist Arvid Engegård and double bassist Knut Erik Sundquist on several acclaimed recordings; Veslemøy synsk, with Kielland, was nominated for a Grammy Award. His solo discography includes Grieg, Brahms, Debussy and Bach, and his 2023 album J.S. Bach: Partitas Nos. 1, 5 & 6 won critical acclaim.

He received the Robert Levin Memorial Prize in 2004 and the Nordlys Prize in 2013.