"Man får denne eksistenielle følelsen, at det er noe opphøyd, eterisk, vakkert" (om Bachs musikk)                              

- Sveinung Bjelland

Sveinung Bjelland is one of Norway's leading classical pianists. His recording of Scarlatti and Mendelssohn sonatas received international acclaim and was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy Award. It was followed by numerous albums, including a celebrated recording of concertos by Chopin and Schumann in 2018.
He studied with Professor Hans Leygraf at Mozarteum in Salzburg and at the University of the Arts in Berlin. After his studies, which he completed with top marks and special distinction, he received numerous awards and was named "Young Musician of the Year" by the Norwegian Concert Institute in 1999.

Bjelland has since then been much in demand, both as a concert soloist and as a chamber musician throughout the world. He has also collaborated closely with the German tenor Daniel Behle for many years, performing in prestigious halls in London, Berlin, Vienna, Lucerne, Paris, Munich and Frankfurt.

Their three recordings of Die schöne Müllerin, Dichterliebe and Die schöne Magelone received enthusiastic reviews from the international music press.

Sveinung Bjelland served as artistic director of the Gloger Festival in Norway from 2002 to 2008.

He is professor of piano at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and the University of Agder in Kristiansand.

Podprat med Sveinung Bjelland: 

Yuko Inoue enjoys a remarkably broad-span career, traceable to her creative childhood, in which above-the-average gifts and talents lead to her first musical appearances already as a six-year old.

After her Bachelor graduation at the Music College of Tokyo and being laureate at several piano- and chamber music competitions during this period, she took up a keen interest in historical keyboard instruments, and graduated with a Master of Music in harpsichord. Alongside her performing studies, she also followed musicological threads in a special curriculum about the Fantasia style in C.P.E. Bach's composition.

After the her debut recital in 2004, Ms Inoue has established her place in the music life, with numerous appearances as harpsichordist and forte-pianist, both in solo and chamber music - in Japan as well as in Europe, i.e., with the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, Kölner Kammerorchester, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, The Norwegen Baroque Orchestra and at the Utrecht Festival voor Oude Muziek.

Although her wide-reaching repertoire encompasses all the major corner-stones in French, Italian and German literature, her keen interest in the works of CPE Bach and the Bach family has brought about new recognition of combining music for both instruments equally. This makes her stand out uniquely from the field of the younger performers of today.

Currently based in Cologne, Germany, Ms Inoue is occupied with concert and recording activities. She studied Early Music with the prof. Ketil Haugsand and graduated with Master of Music in Fortepiano, and Konzertexamen in the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.

Since 2015, she is continuo-player for the Ringve International Summer Course of Early Music, in Trondheim, Norway. In February of 2019, Yuko Inoue fortepiano debut CD " The Art of Emotion " is released from Simax.

Podprat med Yuko Inoue (og Kjetil Haugsand):

Yuko Inoue enjoys a remarkably broad-span career, traceable to her creative childhood, in which above-the-average gifts and talents lead to her first musical appearances already as a six-year old.

Martim Almeida is currently studying with Håvard Gimse at Norges Musikkhogskole, Oslo, having previously been a student of Kathryn Stott.

Born in Coimbra, Portugal, Martim began his piano studies with Klara Dolinay, and then Catarina Peixinho. From a young age, he started to receive musical instruction from brazilian pianist and pedagogue Luiz de Moura Castro, in Portugal, Spain and the United States. He later began his studies with portuguese pianist Artur Pizarro, in Portugal.

Martim has played for pianists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Einar Steen-Nøkleberg, Paul Badura-Skoda, Christopher Park, Guigla Katsaraya, Silke Avenhaus, Olga Prats and Nino Gvetadze.

He has performed both as a solo and chamber musician in Portugal, France, Denmark, Norway, Greece and the United States, having taken part in festivals such as Festspillene i Bergen (Norway), Musical Odyssey Masterclasses (Greece), Hvide Sande Masterclass (Denmark) and SIPO Semana Internacional do Piano de Óbidos (Portugal). In the latter, the recitals were recorded by potuguese classical radio station Antena 2. Martim made his Orchestra début in 2015, with Orquestra Clássica do Centro, in Portugal.

"In Bach, human prayer expresses it´s purest and simplest form, without words or masks."

- Maria Cefalà

Podprat med Maria Cefalá:

Podprat med Kjetil Haugsand (og Yuko Inoue):

Professor emeritus of harpsichord at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Ketil Haugsand counts as one of the important harpsichordists and Early Music personalities of today – appearing in several prestigious festivals and concert series in most European countries, U.S.A., Israel and in the Far East, both as recitalist, in chamber music, soloist, or conductor from the harpsichord, with the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, the Arte Real Ensemble and at the Komischer Oper Berlin. Important chamber music partners have been i.e., Laurence Dreyfus, Wieland Kuijken, Richard Gwilt, Peter Holtslag and several others.

His recordings on CD with works by Jean-Babtiste Antoine Forqueray, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Louis Marchand, Carlos Seixas, João Sousa Carvalho and others, for Simax Classics, Virgin Veritas and Linn Records have won significant international acclaim - and his interpretations of the Clavierübungen by J.S. Bach, especially the Goldberg Variations, have been singled out as highly original and outstanding landmark performances. Released on Simax Classics in 2013 were the six English Suites by Bach and in 2014, also the complete recording of Jean-Philippe Rameau's Pieces de Clavecin. 

The Norwegian born musician studied with Gustav Leonhardt at the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he was awarded the coveted Prix d'Excellence in 1975. Later he was laureate at international harpsichord competitions in Paris and Brûges and held position as harpsichord and chamber music professor at the Norwegian State Academy of Music, in Oslo, between 1974 and 1995.

Prof. Haugsand is a highly demanded harpsichord teacher, one of the most experienced in the academic field, gives regularly summer courses in Norway and Italy - and is frequently invited as jury member at international harpsichord competitions.

"Hvis man er inne i denne musikken her, så er Bach den mest betydningsfulle komponisten som har levd. Fordi Bach er så altomfattende, så blir man aldri ferdig med Bach. Bach har alltid noe nytt, noe som vi ikke har hørt før - selv om vi har hørt det mange ganger."

- Ketil Haugsand