Saturday 14 March, 21:00
(Doors open at 20:30)
Oslo Cathedral
Adult: 400 NOK
Senior/student: 300 NOK
Child: 100 NOK
Duration: approx. 1 hour and 30 minutes
NILS HENRIK ASHEIM: ORGELNATT
NILS HENRIK ASHEIM, organ, composition, and artistic concept || NYNORSK BRASS QUINTET
RUTH WILHELMINE MEYER vocals || ØYSTEIN MOEN, synthesizer/organ || MARCUS ANDRÉ BERG, organ
TJARK PINNE, organ || SINGERS FROM OSLO CATHEDRAL CHOIR
Portrait concert: Nils Henrik Asheim
Nils Henrik Asheim is a composer and organist, pianist and curator – known for his personal improvisation style and for incorporating the organ in many combinations of art forms. The concert honours Asheim’s work through his longstanding concept “Orgelnatt” (Organ Night). Here, the organ is the turning point for an all-encompassing and unpredictable experience where sound, space, voice, and other artistic devices play together. Asheim invites the audience in Oslo Cathedral to a sensory space, where sacred elements from the church’s tradition meet elements from a diverse reality. Among others, we will hear Asheim’s work “Koralens øye” (Eye of the Chorale), from the award-winning work Organotopia, where Renaissance chorales are transformed into beautiful, kaleidoscopic sound circles. Contributing are NyNorsk Brass Quintet, Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer (vocals), Øystein Moen (synthesizer) Marcus André Berg (organ), and Tjark Pinne (organ), with singers from Oslo Cathedral Choir sitting in the audience.
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Nils Henrik Asheim combines a career as an organist, composer, pianist, and initiator of artistic projects. He is trained at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and Sweelinck Academie at Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In 2012, Asheim was appointed as the organist in Stavanger Concert Hall. Here, he has generated a large audience for the organ, by developing new concert formats where the organ is, e.g., combined with other instruments and artistic genres, and with new technology. In 2018, he received the Nordic Council Music Prize for Muohta – Language of Snow. Asheim has also received Spellemannprisen twice, as well as Lindemannprisen, Arne Nordheim’s award for composers, the Norwegian Critics Prize, and the EDVARD award. His children’s opera Stormen, commissioned by the Norwegian Opera & Ballet, won the European RESEO Opera for Young Audiences Award in 2014.
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NyNorsk Brass Quintet consists of Jørgen Arnesen and Erlend Aagaard-Nilsen (trumpet), Marie Solum Gran (horn), Ingebjørg Bruket (trombone), and Berger Iver Færder (tuba). By combining contemporary music with performance art and literature, they have created a distinct repertoire. In collaboration with the writer Kjartan Fløgstad and artists such as Frank Havrøy, Tora Augestad, and Ivar Nergaard, the ensemble has developed unique concert experiences for different audiences. Since 2016, the quintet has performed more than 60 premieres and has received the award “Performer of the year 2021” from the Norwegian Society of Composers. They have played at festivals such as Nordland Music Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, and Hardanger Music Festival, and released six critically acclaimed albums at LAWO Classics.
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Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer is a distinctive vocal artist, multivocalist, and composer. Through her vocal expression, she creates sound worlds ranging from the realistic to the unreal, the expected to the unexpected. In 2020, she was awarded the Norwegian Government’s 10-year artist grant and won the Edvardprisen in 2019. In 2022, the opera Camille Claudel, composed by Steffen Schorn, was specially written for her voice. In 2024, she released the album One Voices, featuring non-verbal music created by her voice as an orchestra. The album received outstanding international reviews and was named one of the three best albums of 2024 by Klassekampen. In 2018, she released the album Vox Humana (FXCD 450) together with Nils Henrik Asheim, recorded on the historic Hildebrandt organ in Pasłęk, Poland.
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Keybord musician Øystein Moen is known from bands such as Jaga Jazzist, Puma, and Highasakite. In 2008, Moen joined the band Jaga Jazzist, leading to several performances at festivals both in Norway and abroad. He has also collaborated with Susanne Sundfør, Morten Qvenild, and Christian Wallumrød. Moen studied jazz at the Conservatory of Music in Trondheim.
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Marcus André Berg is Chief organist in Oslo Cathedral. He trained at the Norwegian Academy of Music and regularly plays solo concerts both in Norway and abroad, with an expansive repertoire that includes improvisation. He has collaborated with a number of different choirs, ensembles, and musicians. From autumn 2024, he is also the artistic director for the concert series “International organ concerts” in the churches Paulus and Sofienberg in Oslo. From 2025, Berg is the director of Oslo Organ Festival.
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Tjark Pinne is the cathedral organist in Oslo Cathedral from 2025. He studied church music at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. From 2019 to 2021, he studied in Toulouse with Michel Bouvard, Jan Willem Jansen, and Stéphane Bois. From 2022 to 2025, Tjark Pinne worked as a church musician at the main church St. Nikolai in Hamburg, where he among other things followed the refurbishing of the church’s main organ, which he later inaugurated. In addition to his church musician appointment, Pinne regularly plays concerts both in Norway and abroad.
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Oslo Cathedral Choir’s activities range from concert productions, weekly participation in church services, and public and national engagement, including CD recordings and tours. The choir regularly works with professional musicians and orchestras, and has a wide repertoire from early music to newly written works. For the last few years, the choir has also taken part in Olavsfest, Ultima, Bergen International Festival, Oslo Jazz Festival, and Oslo Chamber Music Festival.
Photo: Nils Henrik Asheim: Line Owren, NyNorsk Brass Quintet: Magnus Skrede, Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer: Carl Asquini, Marcus André Berg: Andora Hylland, Tjark Pinne: Andora Hylland, Oslo Domkor: Sveinung Hoel Bjorå
