Artists 2023
David Coucheron
Violin
His phrasing is elegant and his concentrated tune a thing of beauty.
David Coucheron
Violin
David Coucheron is Concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He won the position in competition with more than 200 contestants, becoming the youngest Concertmaster of any major US orchestra. Born in Oslo, Norway, David Coucheron began playing the violin when he was three years old. He earned a Bachelor’s of Music degree at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, a Master’s of Music at the Juilliard School of Music in New York and a Master’s of Performance from Guildhall School of Music in London. He has studied with such eminent professors as Igor Ozim, Aaron Rosand, Lewis Kaplan and David Takeno. David plays a 1732 Stradivarius, loaned to him by the Anders Sveaas Almennyttige Fond.
Julie Coucheron
Piano
She has a beautiful legato and rubatoplay with great sense of melodic lines and exact vocals.
Julie Coucheron
Piano
At twenty-seven years of age, Ms. Coucheron has already established an international career, winning prizes in Italy, Germany and the United States. Ms. Coucheron has worked with musicians such as Claude Frank and Emanuel Ax. She has toured Europe, America, South America and Asia, performing on such great concert stages as Verizon Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall.
Born in Oslo, Norway, Ms. Coucheron began to play the piano at the age of four. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with honors. Ms. Coucheron has performed at festivals such as the Oslo Chamber Music Festival, the Bergen International Music Festival and at the La Jolla Summerfest. For the last two years, Julie has been artistic director of the Fjord Cadenza festival in Norway. She is also a founding member of the Kon-Tiki Classical Music Fest in Oslo, Norway. In September, 2002, she released her first recording, ‘Debut’, on the Naxos label, performing with her brother, David. The CD includes lyrical and virtuoso music from the classical repertoire. In September, 2008, Ms. Coucheron and her brother released their second recording, ‘David and Julie’, on the Mudi/Naxos label. This recording, which includes sonatas by Grieg and Brahms, received superb reviews worldwide. Ms. Coucheron is a member of the Georgian Chamber Players and recently performed the Brahms piano quartet with them in Spivey Hall in Atlanta.
Bjørg Pas
Violin
Won the international competition Young Musicians in Estonia. Here she won 1st prize, as well as two prizes for best performance of a newly written work.
Bjørg Pas
Violin
Bjørg is an 18-year-old violinist, who is a student at the Barratt Due music institute. She has performed as a soloist in front of well-known orchestras such as the Oslo Philharmonic and the Broadcasting Orchestra, and in 2022 was a finalist in the Norwegian TV competition "Virtuos". She is currently the borrower of a G.B. Guadagnini, Torino 1773 violin which she proudly rents from Anders Sveeas' Almennyttige fond.
Bjørg started life in Trysil and Elverum, where she grew up with musical parents and siblings. She got to try the violin for the first time at the age of 4, and has stood by the choice to become a violinist ever since. When Bjørg was 5 years old, she made her way to Oslo for the first time to begin as a student with Ting zu Chen at the Barratt Due music institute.
At the age of 8, she was accepted into Barratt Due's talent development program Unge Talenter, which is considered an important start in her further musical career. In 2017, Bjørg took part in his first festival, as a soloist with Ragnhild Hemsing during the Hemsing Festival. This was the start of her dream of continuing her life as a performing musician, a dream she has held onto ever since. Later that year, she got to relive life as a soloist, but this time as a finalist in the international competition Young Musicians in Estonia. Here she won 1st prize, as well as two prizes for best performance of a newly written work.
Bjørg has taken part in several master classes and trips abroad over the years, and has been taught by well-known teachers such as Cyrus Beroukhim, Gregory Fulkerson and Dora Schwarzberg, all of whom have helped her further in her dream as a performing musician. In 2020, Bjørg was a soloist with the Oslo Philharmonic for the first time, in a concert series called Klangen for Klima. This was an experience she got to relive in 2022, and in total she got to play 15 concerts as a soloist.
Lars Anders Tomter
Viola
The Giant of the Nordic Viola
The Strad
Lars Anders Tomter
Viola
Lars Anders Tomter is one of today’s most outstanding violists. The Giant of the Nordic Viola (The Strad) was born at Hamar, Norway. He began to play the violin at the age of eight and also took up the viola. Both instruments with Professor Leif Jørgensen at the Oslo Music Conservatory and the Norwegian State Academy. He then continued his studies with Professor Max Rostal and with Sándor Vegh. He was awarded a special prize for his interpretation of Bartók’s Viola Concerto at the International Viola Competition in Budapest in 1984 and then went on to win the Maurice Vieux International Competition in Lille in 1986.
Lars Anders Tomter has distinguished himself by performing new music extensively, including the world premiere of four concertos by Ragnar Söderlind, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Rolf Wallin and Anders Eliasson, which have all been written for Lars Anders Tomter.
Lars Anders Tomter’s appearances as an international viola soloist has been greeted with the highest public and critical acclaim throughout Europe and the United States, such as Vienna Musikverein, New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin and the Kölner Philharmonie. He has performed with orchestras such as BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Dutch Radio Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic and Bergen Philharmonic. Conductors with whom he has worked together include among others Marc Albrecht, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dennis Russell Davies, Daniele Gatti, Manfred Honeck, Krzysztof Penderecki, Arvid Jansons, Ervin Lukács, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and John Storgårds. In addition, Lars Anders Tomter collaborates frequently with internationally renowned musicians in chamber music projects.
Lars Anders Tomter is a regular guest at important festivals such as BBC Proms, Kissingen Summer, Mondseetage, Schleswig-Holstein, Schwetzingen,Verbier as well as at a number of festivals in Scandinavia. In addition, he is joint artistic director of Fjord Classics in Sandefjord and has previously been artistic director for Risør Chamber Music Festival. His large repertoire includes all major contemporary works, and he has recorded for Simax, Naxos, Virgin Classics, NMC, Somm and Chandos.
Lars Anders Tomter is a Professor at the State Academy in Oslo, supervising a number of Norway’s most talented string players. In 2013 he was appointed assistant professor at the Royal Danish Music Academy, Copenhagen. He plays a Gasparo da Salo viola dated from 1590.
Sølje Bergman
Actress
Sølje Bergman
Actress
Norwegian actress Sølje Bergman was born and raised in Oslo, Norway. She studied at the prestigious William Esber Studio in New York and starred in several off Broadway plays like “Three sisters” by A. Chekov. She also starred in the popular show “Sopranos”.
Sølje has worked in theater, movies and tv abroad and in Norway.
In her home country of Norway she is most known for her roles in “Yours to the death”, “Christmas storm”, “Lilyhammer”, “Christmas star” and “Hotel Cæsar”.
Sølje is also a mental coach and gives talks and private lessons. Recent appearances include lectures at the popular Tara-weekend and at the women’s health conference.
Ingeborg Christophersen
Recorders, harpsichord and organ
Ingeborg is a soloist on Barokkanerne's two critically acclaimed releases Recordare Venezia and Totally Telemann.
Ingeborg Christophersen
Recorders, harpsichord and organ
Ingeborg Christophersen is a versatile musician with a busy career as a recorder player, harpsichordist and organist. She received The Norwegian Society of Tone Artists' price of honour "Musician of the Year" in 2003 and has received numerous other awards.
She performs with ensembles like Barokkanerne, The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, The Norwegian Soloist Choir and The Norwegian Radio Orchestra and works frequently in radio- and TV productions. She is a recorder soloist in the two Barokkanerne recordings Recordare Venezia og Totally Telemann
Julie Yuqing Ye
Soloist
Julie Yuqing Ye
Soloist
As a soloist and chamber musician, pianist Julie Yuqing Ye has given concerts in, among others, the Norwegian Opera and Ballet, Oslo Concert Hall, Edvard Grieg Museum at Troldhaugen and Wigmore Hall and Milton Court Concert Hall in London.
She completed her diploma studies at Norway's Academy of Music in 2018, after having completed a master's and bachelor's degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Some of the festivals Julie has participated in are Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Oxford Philomusica Piano Festival, Beijing International Music Festival and Academy, International Summer Academy Mozarteum, Hardanger Musikkfest, Trondheim Chamber Music Festival.
Victoria Lewis
Violin
Victoria Lewis
Violin
Victoria Lewis is a 22-year-old violinist from Asker. She completed her bachelor's at Barratt Due's music institute with Stephan Barratt-Due in the spring of 2023. She begins her master's studies with professor David Takeno in London in the autumn of 2023, generously supported by the Ingar Dobloug's scholarship. Victoria is an active freelancer and chamber musician and can often be seen in the Norwegian Symphony Orchestras. She plays regularly with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Ensemble Allegria.
She is also part of the prestigious Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. In the spring of 2023, she was invited to act as substitute concertmaster in the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. Victoria has also been invited to a number of festivals in Norway and abroad, and is a permanent member of Fjord Classic Festival Strings and Risør Festival Strings.
Glenn Gordon
Contrabass
Glenn has the good fortune to play on two fine instruments , one built especially for him by the late Patrick Charton in 2008 and a fine english bass from John Devereux built in 1850.
Glenn Gordon
Contrabass
American-Norwegian Glenn Lewis Gordon was born in Long Island,New York. He began to study the double bass when he was 9 years old. He says «I actually wanted to play the tuba or the violin but once I tried the bass I was hooked,so the bass is a nice combination which suits me well» He started his formal studies with Karen Hansen Gellert and moved on to Homer Mensch in the pre-college division of the Juilliard School in New York. After Juilliard Glenn began studying with Roger Scott at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. While at Curtis Glenn began playing as a substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Upon graduating Glenn started his orchestral career as Co-principal of the Symphony orchestra of Galicia in Spain. After Spain Glenn moved to Norway where he started his Norwegian life as assistant solo bass with the Stavanger Symphony. Glenn moved to Oslo in 1995 to his present orchestra the Oslo Philharmonic where he serves as assistant solo bass, a position he has held since 2010. There he has been able to learn and create music with some of the greatest musicians of the 20th and 21th centuries.
Although for Glenn all music is a form of chamber music he loves to play in small ensembles and constellations and has been a guest artist of the Horten chamber music festival, Oslo Camerata,Duo Oktova, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Oslo Sinfonetta as well as the Kon-Tiki Classic festival where he first performed in 2019.
Glenn has the good fortune to play on two fine instruments , one built especially for him by the late Patrick Charton in 2008 and a fine english bass from John Devereux built in 1850.
Andreas Brantelid
Cello
Andreas plays the 1707 ‘Boni-Hegar’ Stradivarius, which has been made available to him by the generous support of Norwegian art collector Christen Sveaas.
Andreas Brantelid
Cello
Andreas Brantelid was born in Copenhagen in 1987 to Swedish/Danish parents. After receiving early tuition from his father Ingemar, Andreas made his soloist debut at the age of 14 in a performance of the Elgar concerto with the Royal Danish Orchestra in Copenhagen. Today, Andreas is one of the most sought-after performing artists from Scandinavia, winning worldwide critical acclaim for his thought-provoking interpretations, uniquely colorful sound and engaging personality.
Highlights of recent orchestra engagements includes appearances with the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Radio Symphony, Hamburger Symphoniker, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Munich Chamber Orchestra, as well as all the major orchestras in the Nordic countries. He has worked with many distinguished conductors including Andris Nelsons, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vasily Petrenko, and Heinrich Schiff.
Andreas Brantelid has appeared in venues such as Dortmund Konzerthaus, where he has been a ‘Junge Wilde’ artist, New York (Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall), London (Wigmore Hall), Zurich (Tonhalle), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Barcelona (Palau de la Música), Salzburg (Mozarteum) and Tokyo (Metropolitan Theatre). He also performs at festivals including Verbier, Lockenhaus, Jerusalem, Stavanger, Bergen, Risør, Kuhmo, and Wiener Festwochen, and has been a member of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.
Andreas won first prizes in the 2006 Eurovison Young Musicians Competion, the 2007 International Paulo Cello Competition and, in subsequent years, received music awards and fellowships including the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2008, the BBC’s New Generation Artist 2008-2011, The Europan Concert Hall Organization “Rising Star” tour in the 2008/09 season. In 2015 he received the Carl Nielsen Prize in Copenhagen. In 2018 Andreas Brantelid has become Artistic Director at the Stavanger International Chamber Music Festival.
Andreas plays the 1707 ‘Boni-Hegar’ Stradivarius, which has been made available to him by the generous support of Norwegian art collector Christen Sveaas.
