Solistkoret Ung at Bergen International Festival

The singers Solistkoret Ung, the Norwegian Soloists' Choir Academy, does its first concert at Bergen International Festival with a program curated by Lise Davidsen!

In Håkonshallen this year's Festival Artist in Residence, Lise Davidsen, appears in a slightly different role than we are accustomed to: she is the presenter and host for a concert displaying what has formed her as an artist. She has been at liberty to select musicians and repertoire from among her favourites. The result is a musical range from the seventeenth century to the present day.

Today Lise Davidsen is recognised as an operatic singer, but one of the reasons the soprano chose to study at the Grieg Academy was a fascination for the Baroque era and the early music scene in Bergen. The concert opens with Baroque music – Bach's Jesu meine Freude. Last year Davidsen had great success with Grieg's songs, and the great Bergen composer is represented here with two of his Psalms, alongside choral works by Olivier Messiaen and a work by a composer at the cusp of a career.

On the stage is the Norwegian Soloists' Choir Academy, the Soloists' Choir's programme to develop a new generation of ensemble singers. Lise Davidsen was herself a member of the Norwegian Soloists' Choir for many years, and it meant a great deal to her both personally and professionally. The conductor is the choir's critically acclaimed musical director Grete Pedersen, and Bach's work is accompanied by Associate Professor Hans Knut Sveen from the Grieg Academy on organ with cello and double bass.