An original musical thinker
Grete Pedersen is one of Norway's most renowned conductors and a leading figure in international choral music. She will bring two projects to the 2025 Bergen International Festival, performing with the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, which she has been the artistic director of since 1990.
Grete Pedersen is an artistic force who has shaped the musical scene both here in Norway and internationally for several decades. She is an original musical thinker, both fearless and sensitive. Utterly honest and direct, yet humble and searching, says Lars Petter Hagen, artistic director and chief executive of the Bergen International Festival.
Among previous Festival musicians are Lise Davidsen, Ragnhild Hemsing, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Leif Ove Andsnes. The Festival director is proud to add Grete Pedersen to this prestigious list.
A hallmark of Pedersen’s artistic work is her ability to craft concerts that seamlessly blend different genres and eras. At the Festival, she will present a concert programme that combines Bach's motets with contemporary music, along with a collaboration with the Norwegian singer Emilie Nicolas, where the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and Nicolas dive into each other’s musical worlds.
Being named Festival musician at the Bergen International Festival is both a great honor and an exciting challenge. I’m looking forward to concerts with works by composers who always challenge and leave a new impression on me. Bach never ceases to amaze me, and Lachmann and Mahler are both sound poets in their own way, says Grete Pedersen.
She has long wanted to collaborate with Emilie Nicolas, and the project also carries a personal dimension for her.
I consider Emilie Nicolas one of the most exciting and expressive Norwegian musicians. The fact that I also get to perform on stage with bandleader, drummer, and my son Eivind Helgerød makes this an especially meaningful project for me. Together with my absolute favorite choir, the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, and handpicked baroque musicians, I hope that musical boundaries will be swept away, and that interplay and different perspectives will merge into a unified expression, says Pedersen, who has followed the Bergen International Festival since she was a child.