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        COMPOSERS:

        MUSICIANS:

        FESTIVAL MENTORS,                 LECTURERS and                         MODERATORS:
ROLF WALLIN:

Rolf Wallin (Oslo, 1957) is one of the foremost contemporary Nordic
composers. His musical background spans from jazz, avantgarde rock and
early music to traditional classical training, and this versatility is
reflected in an exceptionally manyfaceted list of compositions. Wallins
compositional output covers a wide range of techniques and expressions:
from strictly absolute music to music theatre, from strongly intuitive
music for dance and performance art to elaborate computer-aided
composition in his instrumental music.

Wallin's music is regularly performed worldwide. He has written for some
of the  world's foremost performers, ensembles, intitutions and
orchestras, such as Cleveland Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain,
IRCAM, Arditti String Quartet and Wiener Mozartjahr.

Rolf Wallin has received several prices for his music, such as The
International EBU Rostrum 1999 and the Nordic Council's Music Prize 1997.
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CECILIE ORE:

Cecilie Ore (1954) started out as a piano student at the Norwegian Academy of Music and in Paris (1974-81), and subsequently turned to composition studies at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht and with Ton de Leeuw at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam (1981-86).
In the 80's Ore won international recognition for several of her electroacoustic works. She won both the first and second prize at the International Rostrum for Electro-Acoustic Music 1988 for Etapper (Stages). The same year she also received the Norwegian Society of Composers' "Composition of the Year" award for Porphyre, as well as the Norwegian State Guarantee Income for Artists.

Towards the end of the 80's Ore became increasingly involved with the problem of time in music; an involvement which resulted in the tetralogies Codex Temporis (ACD 4989) and Tempura Mutantur. In 1994 she also wrote the orchestra piece Nunc et Nunc for BBC Symphony Orchestra.

A – a shadow opera was premiered at the Ultima Festival 2001, and released on CD in 2003 (ACD 5034), the year she also composed Schwirren for Nordic Voices.

Ore was awarded the Arne Nordheim Composers Price for 2004. And in 2008 the chamber opera Dead Beat Escapement, commissioned by the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, will have it’s first performance.
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CLAUS-STEFFEN MAHNKOPF:

1962 born on October 22 in Mannheim. 1984-1992 study of musicology, philosophy, and sociology at the universities of Heidelberg, Freiburg, and Frankfurt am Main; study of composition with Brian Ferneyhough, Klaus Huber, and Emanuel Nunes, piano with James Avery, and theory with Peter Förtig. Degrees: Hochschulabschluß and Ph.D. Since 1985 international prizes (Gaudeamus Prize 1990, Stuttgarter Kompositionspreis 1993, Ernst von Siemens Förderpreis 1998) and scholarships (Stuttgart, Rome, Basel, Hamburg, Venice). Since 1986 performances at international festivals worldwide; numerous portait concerts in Europe. 1988-1994 faculty member of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. Since 1990 lecturer and substitute for professorial position in theory and composition in Freiburg and Leipzig. 1995 founding of the Gesellschaft für Musik und Ästhetik, since 1997 editor of Musik & Ästhetik. 2002 initiation of the book series "New Music and Aesthetics in the 21st Century". Since 2005  professor for composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig. Important books: Kritische Theorie der Musik (2006), Die Humanität der Musik. Essays aus dem neuen. Jahrhundert (2007). Important works: Rhizom, Medusa, Angelus Novus, Hommage à György Kurtág, void – mal d'archive, Prospero's Epilogue, humanized void, Dritte Kammersymphonie. Informations: www.claussteffenmahnkopf.de
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LARS PETTER HAGEN:
Lars Petter Hagen (b.1975) studied composition at the Norwegian State  
Academy of Music. His work includes instrumental and electroacoustic  
music as well as sound installations and music for stage and film.

Hagen has been represented at such events as the Donaueschinger  
Musiktage, Maerzmusik, Gaudeamus Music Week, Huddersfield  
Contemporary Music Festival and the Ultima festival. He is currently  
writing pieces for SWR Symphony orchestra for Donaueschingen 2008,  
and for Ensemble Modern.

He is also the artistic director of Happy Days Sound Festival in  
Oslo, and Ny Musikk in Norway, and was the first editor of the  
Norwegian contemporary music magazine Parergon.
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ARNT HÅKON ÅNESEN (NO):

Arnt Håkon Ånesen grew up in Fauske in north of Norway. In 1996 he moved to Oslo, where he has studied his Bachelor in Composition and Pedagogical Studies. At the moment he is finishing his Diploma (Master) in Composition at The Norwegian Academy of Music.

In addition to his studies, he has freelanced as composer in Norway and abroad. His music has been performed in Athen-Greece and Tokyo-Japan, in cooperation with the Norwegian Embassies and the artist Hilde Aagaard.

Ånesen has written music for solo instruments, chamber music, sinfonietta- and orchestral pieces in addition to electro acoustic works. At the moment he is working on a commission from Nordland Musikkfestuke for the baritone-bassist Ketil Hugaas and Kroumata Percussion Ensemble.

Some of his works is available at Music Information Centre Norway.  His work ”Janus” for 9 trombones (commissioned by The Norwegian Academy of Music) is published at Warwick Music Ltd. United Kingdom. This work is also to find at Spaeth/Schmid Blechbläsernoten, Germany.

In progress
What meaning does music have, if any, beyond itself? This is a question with as many answers as there are people to answer. When, as a composer, I am asked to comment on my music, I feel it is not enough simply to describe them from a compositional perspective. The technical aspect is at it is, but is also usually subject to existential “feeling” during the composition process. I like to go deeper into that feeling and into the existential questions which arise in the course of the composition process.

In progress was written as a comment to the act of maintaining calm whilst in the midst of a powerful, transformational process. During the transformation from one state to another, we as human beings are often thrown about between extremities and may easily lose our footing. Life washes in over us. We are swept along, for better or worse, and lose our overview. Focus on detail becomes overshadowing. In progress attempts therefore to describe a quite, meditative calm, while at the same time the calm can provide an overview and create a relationship with what is concrete and problematized, by distancing itself from it.

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IGNAS KRUNGLEVICIUS (NO):
Krunglevicius (b.1979) works varies from compositions for orchestra to documentary about soviet secret nuclear city, from action movie pastiche to remix of Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”. Although all works could be separated in to fields of contemporary music and video/audio art, they all share stylistic clarity and minimalistic forms. Works could be seen in the following exhibitions: 0047 "RYKK TILBAKE TIL START! #2" Oslo (2008), ”Oslo Open kunstfilmfestival”, Oslo (2007), “Bandits-Mages” Bourges, Frankrike (2007),  “Videonale 11”, Kunstmuseum Bonn, "Selfobjects", Lithuanian Art Museum (2006), "101.3 KM: competition and cooperation, Kaunas and Vilnius artists exhibition" , Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius (2006), "PodiumBiennalen", Black Box, Oslo, "Botschaften + Bring a friend", at the project room at gallery ATOPIA, Oslo, ULTIMA festivalen (2004).

TV-Love
Video investigates media power and its relationship with viewer. With backing from "bare-bone-naked-techno-beats" TV talks to us by simple text on the screen. Throughout the composition it becomes our friend, master and love.
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ØRJAN MATRE (NO):

Ørjan Matre (b. 1979) studied composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Bjørn Kruse, Lasse Thoresen, Olav-Anton Thommessen and Henrik Hellstenius. He has written a number of pieces for different types of instrumentation, from smaller chamber- and solo pieces to major works for orchestras, several of which have been performed at concerts and festivals in Norway, as well as abroad. His orchestral music has been performed by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. His work "Four miniatures for Orchestra" was in 2005 recorded by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra under the direction of Rolf Gupta. From 2006 to 2008 he was composer in residence for Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra.

ATEM
Atem (German = breath) consists of four parts (played without pause) which all relate to breathing and toneless sounds. The first and third section have a scherzo-like character and consist mostly of this vague, toneless material. In my early sketches I called this a "ghost-ensemble". In the second and fourth part, the piece gradually finds a slower pulse, where the instruments meet in slow chord progressions. «Atem» was commisioned by Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra with support from the Norwegian Art Council.
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EMIL BERNHARDT (NO):
Emil Bernhardt (b. 1979) studied composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music and at the Musikhochschule Freiburg, Germany. He has worked with several Norwegian musicians and ensembles. In 2007 he received the three year INTRO-program for young composers organized by MIC (the Norwegian Music Information Centre). Emil Bernhardt also works as editor for the Norwegian journal of contemporary music, Parergon.

Musikk med kommentar (Music with Comments) (2006)
The relation between music and language: How words, comments, explanations, names, technical terms, symbols, quotations etc influence the way of dealing with music – this is the question behind this piece.

Written for the Norwegian ensemble asamisimasa, and premiered by them at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg in November 2006.
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THERESE BIRKELUND (NO):
Foto: Andreas Ulvo

Therese Birkelund, Bergen (b.1982) has studied composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music and at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London 2002-2008. She has written pieces for many different types of ensembles and works including electronics. Feedback-processes has been an integrated part of her latest pieces, this method is being developed further in her present projects.
 
Fragile
This piece is written for Britt Pernille Frøholm (hardangerfiddle). World premiered at the Ultima festival in 2007. Fragile is my first work using feedback-processes. The close and intimate way of working was new to both me and her, and we found our way as the project progressed. We went trough many phases, with graphic notation and solfege, finding different ways to communicate both with the material and with each other. As the piece developed - the need for graphics disappeared. Therefore, there exist no score for Fragile.
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JAN ERIK MIKALSEN (NO):

Jan Erik Mikalsen studied at the Grieg Academy in Bergen and at the Royal Danish Music Academy in Copenhagen. He has had numerous works performed by several orchestras in the Nordic countries including Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra ant the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra. He has also composed works for various instrument combinations and solo instruments, and received commissions from among others Oslo Sinfonietta, Bodø Sinfonietta, Thomas Bloch, Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra, Manger Musikklag, Orchestre Francais de Flutes and Artis-Quartett Wien. In 2005 he was one of two winners of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestras Nordic/Baltic Composer Work shop. He has also written music for different videoinstallations, with among others visual artist Bård Ask. 
In 2006 the piece Ghouls & Moons was released on the CD Lights out (ACD5048) by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, conductor Rolf Gupta.

Themes
For clarinet, piano and string quartet (2007)

Themes was composed as an extention to the piece Night songs (for clarniet and brass band). The formal structure of the piece is divided into two movements, and tries to put themes in relief to each other.
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BJØRN ERIK HAUGEN (NO):

Bjørn Erik Haugen (1978) finished is MA at the National Academy in Oslo in 2007. He mainly works with video, composition and sound installation, but he sets no limit to what media, format or material he makes use of in his artistic production. He works from a conceptual platform where the idea comes before the material and way of expression. work centers around problematizing how different medias blends into our perception of reality and makes an impact of how we see the world today. He has performed at UNM 2005 and 2007 and IREM 2007, Lisboa.
His videos has been shown on the annual national autumn exhibition in Norway, and has been screened on in Wienna, LOOP Barcelona and Art Video Screening in Sweden. Haugen will hold his first soloexhibition at the Photo Gallery in Oslo in December and attend a sound art exhibition at Hennie Onstad Art Center November 2008.

Pattern Recognition
Pattern Recognition (2007) is a recomposition of E. Griegs "Liden fugl" from "Lyriske stykker." The composition is made out of Welte Mignon recordings performed by Grieg himself.
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CLAUS-STEFFEN MAHNKOPF:

Hommage à Frank Cox
For three instruments (electric guitar, quarter-tone vibraphone, piano)
Composed 2006 for „ensemble asamisamasa“

„Hommage à Frank Cox“ is the seventh in a series of tributes to famous artistic and literary personalities.The previous hommages were dedicated to György Kurtág, Mark André, Daniel Libeskind, Theodor W. Adorno, Thomas Pynchon, and Steven Kazuo Takasugi.

Frank Cox, American composer, cellist and author, is a close personal friend and long-time colleague of mine.  His „triple threat“ of talents inspired me to compose a trio for three instruments that seem to suit his three specialties.  The electric guitar represents the performer, the piano takes the part of the composer in search of musical structure and the vibraphone serves the function of a typewriter.  Following a specific dramaturgie, each player performs his part independently of the others, interrupted only by two cadenzas and ending in a „finale“ in the form of a metrically coordinated score. The electric guitar, frequently playing in shifting quarter-tone pitches, serves as a mediator between the twelve-tone piano and the quarter-tone vibraphone.

For the first time in my composing career, I have used mathematical curves to generate the pitch changes and tonal shifts.  This was made possible by using the program „Open Music.“
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TIMOTHY PAGE (FI):

BIO:
Timothy Page (b.1975, USA) began composing after earning a degree in physics at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. In 2000, after a two-year stint teaching physics at the University of California at Berkeley, he received a Fulbright grant from the American government to study at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki for the following academic year. He has resided in Helsinki since then, and continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy with composer Veli-Matti Puumala from 2001 to 2007.  Page’s music has been performed throughout Europe and the US, and  he has represented Finland in the UNM festival four times since 2002 (Reykjavik, Oslo, Stockholm, Copengagen). He acted as vice-chairman of the Korvat Auki! (Ears Open!) new music society from 2003 to 2006, and has attended master classes with, among others, Tristan Murail, Magnus Lindberg, Jouni Kaipainen, and Brian Ferneyhough. Page’s musical interests span well beyond the classical concert hall, as seen for example in his work as drummer and composer for the Balkan jazz-folk band Stara Zagora. For more music, thoughts, etc... you can check out his MySpace page at www.myspace.com/timpagecomposer


Torsion (2007)
In mathematics, torsion is amount of twist undergone by a 3-dimensional parametric curve.  In this piece, the middle instalment of an orchestral triptych still under construction, torsion refers to the twisting of harmonies through frequency space.
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ILARI HONGISTO (FI):

Ilari Hongisto (1978) is a Finnish composer from Turku. Hongisto has taken his master’s degree in musicology in University of Turku. He has also studied percussions in Turku Conservatory. He graduated two years ago as a musician. Nowadays Hongisto is doing a PhD in musicology in University of Turku and studying composing in Turku Music Academy.

In addition to Hongisto’s studies he is also working as a musician, sound engineer, arranger, composer and music teacher. At the moment he is teaching composing in the music high school of Puolalanmäki in Turku and music theory, music technology and percussions in the music school of nearby city, Naantali.

Hongisto’s pieces usually have something to do with the space where they are to be played. Spatialism and acoustic phenomena are always present in Hongisto’s works. One of the most important elements in Hongisto’s music is movement of different sounds. For example, non-traditional positioning of players offers a chance to use the sounds in various ways. The story of the work can be told by moving the sound from one place to another. Movement gives the sound new dimensions. Hongisto has used many kinds of audio tapes and electronic systems in his works, for example 5.1 and 7.1 surround tapes and electronic scores.

Kävellen
For mixed choir, 5.1 surround tape and movement of sounds

First part: Tyyni
Sedond part: Toisin
Third part: Kantta

The name of the piece, Kävellen, is Finnish and means ‘by foot’. In this work it particularly means walking on the ice of the sea as the piece tells a story about the wintry sea. Singers are divided into eight trios which are postioned around the audience as are the 5.1 surround monitors, too. The tape and the trios surround the listener. The listener is inside the sounds of the work itself in the same way as the ice-covered sea takes a hold on a lonely walker on it. It is possible to tell a lot with the movement of sounds.

The sounds on the tape are mainly natural sounds of real sea ice. Multiphones of different woodwind instruments and human voice are also being used. The sounds of two grand pianos are also used on tape. The second piano is tuned 50 cents higher than the first one. There are also different kinds of echos and delays on the tape.

This work gives new kind of responsibility for choir singers: they have to be able to sing almost alone and sometimes with the tape. The composer has used different kinds of variations of canon-based thinking in writing this piece. The musical material is calm and icy, like the sea in the wintertime, and it is focused around different tonal centers. The sonic landscapes in this work are inspired by the wintry sea.

Kävellen has been performed once in the final concert of a Nordic composing contest for choir music 21.1.2007, at Sigyn Concert Hall in Turku Finland. The work was tied for third place in this contest which was organized by Turku Conservatory.
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JARKKO HARTIKAINEN (FI):
Jarkko Hartikainen is a Finnish composer born in 1981. His oeuvre consists of some twenty works of orchestral, chamber, operatic, choir, electronic and film music. He has studied with prof. Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy, and has also participated in numerous international masterclasses (by Beat Furrer, Helmut Lachenmann, Tristan Murail, Magnus Lindberg, Bent Sørensen, Toshio Hosokawa and Jonathan Harvey, among others).

Following the success of his orchestral variations Hommage (SävellYS 2006 award), Hartikainen has received commissions and performances from several instrumentalists, the Finnish National Opera, Sibelius Academy, Avanti!, Parkour (Belgium/Finland), adapter (Germany), Finnish RSO, Latvian Radio Chamber Choir, Rohm Music Foundation (Japan), Tapiola Sinfonietta, UNKO and Vivo Symphony Orchestra. So far, his music has been on concert programs in Finland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Lithuania, New Zealand and Japan, as well as on the national television network of India. Taking time off from work, Hartikainen enjoys travelling, playing football, wines from northern Italy, cooking, and hanging out. (For complete information, see http://www.fimic.fi/hartikainen.)


alone (2007)
The guitarist often works in solitude and even more so does the composer. After a long relationship has ended in comes the loneliness, likewise when visiting abroad. In 2007, I composed a solo piece for guitar – my first instrument – without the typical guidance from a composition teacher (if a playful guitar-on-my-lap conversation with Magnus Lindberg doesn't count) while spending time in Kyoto, Salzburg, Porvoo and Helsinki. From the familiar I felt I could better reach out into the unknown.

The resulting work, alone (2007), is a commission by the successful young Finnish guitarist Otto Tolonen, supported by the Madetoja Foundation. The first performance took place at the International Christopher Summer Festival in Vilnius, August 2007.

In this piece my focus is on the compositional possibilities of extended instrumentalism, acoustic phenomena (interference, beats, resonances, overtone shadings etc.), and creating chains of intraopus associations between them.
© 2007 Jarkko Hartikainen
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MAIJA HYNNINEN (FI):

Maija Hynninen (b. 1977) started her composition studies in 2003 at Sibelius Academy with Paavo Heininen at the same time  completing her violin studies (bachelor of music) at Oslo Academy of Music in 2004. As well as writing for acoustic instruments she has made some explorations in electro-acoustics and live-electronics in composing music for acoustic instuments and live-electronics (with Max/MSP), tape music for dancers and art installations and purely for concert performances. She has attended masterclasses of Jonathan Harvey, Heinz Holliger, Magnus Lindberg, Jouni Kaipainen and Jukka Tiensuu. Some of her music has been broadcasted in Finnish radio (YLE) and played in several concerts and festivals as well in Finland as abroad. She has attended UNM festival before in Reykjavik 2007.

More information available here: http://www.fimic.fi/hynninen


Kaiku 2
The title of the song Kaiku 2 means Echo 2 in English. It is composed to a poem by Finnish-Swedish poet Catharina Gripenberg (transl. from Swedish Kristiina Lähde). The poem as well as the piece is about echo which is at first answering, then hesitating if it should answer and in the end answering in its own way. At first the echo is purely a physical phenomenon: echo that answers when one shouts out loud. During the piece the echo changes more and more towards being a person or persons with their own will to answer or not to answer.

The electronics could be understood as being the echos representation, not directly but in a more secret, hidden way. The computer is at first recording the voice part and playing it back more and more altered. Towards the end of the piece the electronics become more and more pre-recorded tape parts that develope from a single part to a kind of chorus like part. And of course when echo is in consideration there are also all sorts of hidden mirror structures in the piece.
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MINNA LEINONEN (FI):

Minna Leinonen (1977) has studied composition at the Tampere Conservatoire with Jouni Kaipainen 2000–2005 and Hannu Pohjannoro since 2005. She has also studied composition with senior lecturer Eero Hämeenniemi at the Sibelius Academy 2004–05 and with professor Veli-Matti Puumala since 2005. She has attended masterclasses by Heinz Holliger, Magnus Lindberg, Jouni Kaipainen and Jukka Tiensuu. She has also studied carnatic music at Brhaddhvani School of Music in Chennai (Madras), where she stayed between 2006–2007.

Leinonen's works include mainly chamber music, for example Euterpe for solo flute, Two songs for female voice and accordion and Kriya for bassoon and piano. She has also composed works for ensemble and orchestra, for example Yug for ensemble and Kha for orchestra. At the moment she is composing a work for live percussionist and electronics and a work for cimbalom, accordion and ensemble. Her music has been performed at the concerts given by ao. Tampere Raw, Finnish Vocal Music Association, chamber music recitals by the Seinäjoki City Orchestra, Viitasaari Time of Music, Korvat auki!, Avanti! at Porvoon Suvisoitto festival, Tampere Biennale and Musica Nova. She has received grants from Pro Musica foundation 2002 and 2006, Wegelius foundation 2006 and Finnish Culture foundation 2007.

KRIYA for bassoon and piano (2007)
Kriya is a feisty, virtuoso piece for bassoon and piano. It is an idiomatic work for bassoon in which I have used the numerous textural and timbral possibilities of the bassoon. Piano is either a dynamic support or an equal, alternating partner for bassoon. Kriya was commissioned by Otto Virtanen and Kirmo Lintinen. Kriya means energy and action in Sanskrit.

Kriya is divided into three sections. The first theme of the first section (Allegro virtuoso, energico) includes accents and wegde-shaped forms. In the second theme the two instruments take turns in a motif-based dialogue. The third theme is a rhythmical canon in which registers are alternating rapidly in a pointillistic fashion. The middle section (Andante) is based on different types of “wobbling” including micro-intervals, trills, piano pedalling,  vibrato and tremolo – and on varying dark and bright timbres. The third section (Allegro virtuoso, energico) returns to the bursting expression of the first section.
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TIINA MYLLÄRINEN (FI):

Tiina Myllärinen (b. 1979) started her musical studies with classical guitar at the age of seven in Lahti conservatory. She continued her studies in the Sibelius-Academy and got a degree in performing arts in 2003. After that she has concentrated more in composing, which she studied two years in Naples (Italy) and at the moment in the Sibelius-Academy composition class. She has studied with Patrizio Marrone, Tapani Länsiö, Tapio Tuomela and Tapio Nevanlinna. Her compositions have been performed in Naples (concert series “Gli Allievi incontrano la Città”), in Lappeenranta (guitar festival “ja kitara soi”) and in Helsinki (by the association “Korvat auki ry” and in “SibaFest”, a festival of Sibelius-Academy).

Three songs
Three songs for mezzo-soprano, guitar and cello is written for my friends Marjatta and Tero Airas and my husband Jyrki Myllärinen, who played the first performance in Lappeenranta in October 2007. At the time I was planning the piece I got enthusiastic about new Finnish poetry, and three poems by three different poets ended up to the piece. I think one can feel a line through the texts, from more complicated and rough to serene and finally light and cheerful atmosphere.
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ARI ROMPPANEN (FI):

Ari Romppanen (b. 1974)has studied composition at the Sibelius Academy with Erkki Jokinen. His works consist mostly of chamber music and they have been widely performed at many music festivals in f.ex. Finland, Estonia, Argentina and Iceland. His brass quintet and animated mini-opera have been recorded, the latter has been f.ex. broadcasted on the national TV-channel of India

Ari Romppanen has been awarded at the composition competition of the 9th International Piano Festival in Espoo, Finland. He has also worked  in Buenos Aires after the invitation by the Finnish Embassy in Argentina and the university of Morón. In addition Romppanen has co-operated f.ex. with Academy of Finnish Art Song, Finnish National Opera, Arts Council of South Savo, Conservatory of Joensuu and many others.

As a composer Romppanen is interested in different form solutions. In almost every work he uses several layers which can be quite independent, but in the very next moment the can hardly be told apart. He has also dealed with live electronics and improvisation.

www.fimic.fi/romppanen

Sol/Nemesis
This work represents two different worlds which at first are living their own lives. Even the instruments belonging to each part are stable. Anyway, later these layers are getting closer to each other, and finally they meet. After that they try to reach their independency again, but the change has already taken place: many parameters have changed, and it is quite hard to say if there is one or two different entities, also instruments belonging to each part are changing all the time. At first this very close coexistence seems to lead into one whole, but it doesn't:  the result can be only destruction.
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FREDRIK GRAN (SE):
Born in Stockholm, Sweden 1977. After composition studies with the teacher Christopher Anthin, Fredrik went to Visby in 2001 and studied at the Gotland School of Music Composition for two years, with the teachers Pär Mårtensson, Henrik Strindberg and Sven-David Sandström. In 2003, he began studies in composition at  the Academy of Music and Drama with Ole Lützow-Holm, Åke Parmerud and Anders Hultqvist. In 2004 he continued the Composition Master of Fine Arts (four years) at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Pär Lindgren, Bill Brunson, Lars Ekström and Lars-Erik Rosell as teachers. Continuing at the Royal College of Music for two more years, Fredrik is at present a student at the Composition Masters in Music Performance programme. Fredriks repetoire includes orchestral music, electro acoustic and live electronic music, instrumental and vocal chamber music. Fredrik is also a frequent bassplayer.

an hour and a half
5400 secondbeats on seven minutes.
A sort of reflection of the experience and apprehension of the different speeds of time. I´ve been working with accelerating, decreasing and different fixed rhythms applying or keeping in mind the "Euclidean algorithm", to determine where rhythms meet. This "compressed time", lasting seven minutes, could be seen as a representation of an hour and a half. an hour and a half  had its first performace at Fylkingen in Stockholm 2007 and was also performed last week at ICMC 2008 in Belfast, Northern Ireland (2008/08).
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FREDRIK WALLBERG (SE):
Fredrik Wallberg was born in 1983 and grew up in Ramlösa in the southern part of Sweden. He studied composition, literature, philosophy, chinese and various other languages in an unsystematic way before moving to Gotland to attend the School of Composition there. He has twice visited Karlheinz Stockhausen´s summer courses in Küerten, Germany and is currently studying at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.

Minnets Teater. Spår och Tecken
”Minnets Teater. Spår och Tecken.” (”Theater of Memory. Traces and Signs”) is an attempt to create a cyclic, tightly-woven but porous poetic structure which the short, dry sounds of a number of non-resonant percussion instruments can ”trickle” through, amplifying (at times revealing) a certain aspect of their sonic nature. The point of departure is a simple (ascending-descending) scale -a Gesture, conceived as some sort of ”common ground” (for the performer and listener as well as for the composer)- which is modulated in different directions. This modulation influences the different kinds of memory-processes involved in the musical event (the listener´s continous pendular motion between sensual registration and cerebral reconstruction of the musical stream; the performer´s storing and sequential releasing of information through his/her neural networks; the structure remembering and reflecting upon itself etc.) and aims at communicating different modes of listening (here understood as subjective, poetical contexts in a state of vibration) closely related to each other.

After creating the raw structure (Text) by means of algorithmic materials, I then ”read through” the given Text several times - re-shaping, colouring and amplifying certain characteristics via intuitively chosen methods. This was a process of listening; my role here was (or so it seems) essentially passive.

”Minnets Teater” (”Theater of Memory”) alludes both to the renaissance concept of a memory theater and to a series of drawings by Jean Dubuffet. ”Spår och Tecken” (”Traces and Signs”) is the title of a book by the swedish author Vilhelm Ekelund but can also serve as a description of the cerebral and emotional resonances a musical gesture liberates.

The piece was composed for Jonny Axelsson, who was a great stimulus during the whole process.
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JONAS VALFRIDSSON (SE):

Born 1980 in Jönköping, Sweden, Valfridsson has been studying composition since 2001 in Gothenburg, Paris and Stockholm, and among his teachers can be mentioned Ole Lützow-Holm, Marco Stroppa and Pär Lindgren. His music has been performed by, among others, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and has achieved international awards and honourable mentions. Valfridssons main interest in composition is the influence of electro-acoustic music on instrumental music. Typical electro acoustic terms such as echo, delay and tape stretch are
frequently applied on the instrumental writing. Contemporary poetry is also a big influence for Jonas: Analogue with the often associative writing and short format of modern writers, Valfridssons works are often built up by miniature movements and forms usually associated with literature.

You Tried So Hard To Make Us Away for two violins and electronics 5.1
Written in 2007 with world premiere at Fylking, Sweden, the same year.
-You Tried So Hard To Make Us Away is a painting by Wangechi Mutu, american-kenyian artist, whose artworks has inspired a suite of compositions be me at this time. Trying to achieve a very close relation between the sound of the violins and the sound heard from the loudspeakers, I focused on giving the electronics a bit more instrumental sound, and the violins a bit more electronic sound. For this, I used a lot of extended techniques for the instrumentalists, and was inspired by the frequent use of natural harmonics in the works by Sciarrino. To render a larger amount of these natural harmonics, I detuned the second violin a semi-tone. The interval of the open strings between the two string players is also the base for the harmonic material in this piece.
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PER ANDERSSON (SE):

Pers (born 1980 in Hösjö, Sweden) intrest in composing began in 1999 when he first met composer Fredrik Högberg. After high school Per took lessons in composing with him and then applied for the Piteå  School of  Music in the north of Sweden, where he eventually began to study with Prof. Jan Sandström, Hans Hjortek  and Jan Ferm.

Between  2002 and 2004 he worked part time as an arranger for different musicians, ensembles, publishing companies and record companies. Artist and corporations like:  Christian Lindberg, Martin Fröst, BIS, Edition Tarrodi, Gehrmans musikförlag and many more.

In the fall of 2005 he entered the Bachelor composition programme at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Studies with Prof. Pär Lindgren, Bill Brunson and Lars Ekström among others.

From November until March 2008, Per studied composition for Prof. Fabio Cifariello Ciardi at Conservatorio di Musica di Perugia in Italy.


Durra en Fjord
A piece written during three warm and very sunny weeks in May 2007 in Stockholm. Based on a female voice, filtered white noise and different kinds of synthesizers. Violent screams and cheerful melodic fragments come together in high speed and sometimes in slow motion. The title was simply a result of a vocal part turned backwords in a computer software, and has no connection what so ever to the Norwegian coastline.
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REI MUNAKATA (SE):
Rei's music have been performed by Curious Chamber Players (Stockholm), Gageego! Ensemble (Göteborg), and Musica Vitae String Orchestra (Växjö) in Siren New Music Festival in Göteborg, Euphonia festival in Östersund, Alias New Music Festival in Stockholm, Stockholm Konserthuset, Göteborg Konserthuset, and Plex Musikteater Copenhagen.

The Mocking Maze (2004) was selected to represent Sweden for Ung Nordisk Musik Festival 2005 in Helsinki. Shiomidai Dream (2005) was included in Curious
Chamber Players' CCP Nordic Tour 2007 program and performed in Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö . Sjömansblock (2007), is included in Bakom Bortom Ensemble Tour program, and was performed in seven Swedish cities.

Rei Munakata was born in Yokohama, Japan, and was raised in both Japan and China as his home countries.  In recent years, his home has been USA and Sweden. Rei started his composition study with Noel Zahler at Connecticut College, USA.  Then he continued with Ole Lüztow Holm at Musikhögskolan vid Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden.
www.reimunakata.com

Night Brewing Windmill
Once upon a time, the Night changed its condition more often than now. While its degree of darkness colorfully changes in time, it also transforms its own phase by starting to evaporate, float away, and finally stabilize.  All sorts of creatures and matters make the adventure of the Night exciting and disturbing. The Night has just begun…
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SEBASTIAN RAPACKI (SE):
Sebastian Rapacki (b. 1985) belongs to the very youngest generation of Swedish composers. He was born in 1985 in Uppsala, Sweden, and his musical interest began early with classical piano tuition since age five. In his teenage years Sebastian’s interest in composition increased, and since autumn 2005 he studies composition at the Malmö Academy of Music with Professors Luca Francesconi and Rolf Martinsson. He will graduate (Bachelor level) in summer 2008.

Sebastian has composed solo, chamber, orchestral and electronic music. His works have been performed in Europe and the USA by groups such as the Corda Quartet, Duo Lauri & Pascal, Esbjerg Ensemble, and the ALEA III Contemporary Music Ensemble. He has worked with conductors and soloists such as Jesper Nordin, Theodore Antoniou, Jason Calloway, Jan-Filip Ťupa (IEMA) and Blagoj Lamnjov. He has also participated in festivals and courses like the Darmstadt Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, the Båstad Chamber Music Festival, and UNM. His work ‘A Life in Beautiful Tears’ was featured on the ‘Next Generation’ student programme during the Donaueschinger Musiktage 2007. His work ‘Rhapsodie’ for chamber ensemble won the First Prize in the ALEA III International Composition Competition 2006 in Boston. He also received the Ida Lützhøft Music Award in 2005.

Sebastian currently lives in Copenhagen. Ongoing projects include a new solo piano piece for the Swedish pianist Hans Pålsson, a commission from the Danish Ensemble Northern Lights and a new work for the Swedish wind quintet Woodwings. In April 2008 Sebastian’s guitar duo ‘Tystnad’ will be released on the Swedish label C-Y contemporary. From September 2008 he will continue his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.


Jag lyssnade efter lugnet (2006) for chamber ensemble

I strive to compose absolute music, not so much in that I don't want my music to be about anything, as that I hope it could potentially be about everything, changing with every listener. In the music I admire, particularly the late works of Bach, Beethoven and Webern, I hear sounding sculptures which are seemingly completely abstract, music for its own sake; yet I strongly believe that many people listening to these works each hear their individual lives, emotions and memories beautifully reflected, perfectly 'understood' by this music. I believe that in intelligent abstract structures, crafted by a human musicality, every human mind mirrors itself to find its own unique meaning.

'Jag lyssnade efter lugnet' evolves by cause and consequence as a large, continually transforming organism. The psychological tempo of the music is fairly slow, since everything happens gradually. When something rushes into the foreground, it is quite likely that it has already existed in the subconscious for some time. It is my belief that this type of approach to form helps to anchor the music in the human perceptual machine.

The actual material of the piece is economical almost to the point of dryness: all melodic and harmonic developments are derived from various treatments of an extremely limited three-pitch cell. But what is the music about? Hopefully each listener can tell me a different story. I try to compose music in which the 'meaning' is welded into the actual pitches, and no programme notes, composition seminars or other extramusical phenomena should be required to – or indeed could ever – unlock it. Only two human ears can.

'Jag lyssnade efter lugnet' was composed during the autumn of 2006, and premiered by the Esbjerg Ensemble in May 2007. It is dedicated to Rolf Martinsson.
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ERIK ENSTRÖM og DANIEL ENSTRÖM (SE):

The brothers Erik and Daniel Enström are brought up on the island Gotland but are now living in Malmö. Erik is doing his last year at the Malmö Academy of Music, but is at the moment on an exchange term at Musikhochschule Köln. Daniel has a B.A. in arts history and is currently working with application development in the environmental field. Skallgångar (Organized Searches) is the brothers first artistic project together.


Skallgångar (Organized Searches), a miniopera
Plot/idea
The main scenario is as presented in movement 5. This could be a scene in a bigger drama or an opera, but taken out of context it becomes a cliché of a general dramatic presentation.

This basic scenario is seen from different perspectives according to what is typical for dramas in general and operas in particular, such as character develop-ment, aria, ensemble scene and intermezzo/ouverture, all in separate movements.

To put focus on these different views, the movements are placed after each other without any chronological or dramatical order. This is accentuated by sketch-like scenes – musically and dramatically – and by abrupt jumps between different types of expression.
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CHRISTIAN WINTHER CHRISTENSEN (DK):

Christian Winther Christensen
From Denmark, dangerous...

“INQUIRY INTO TRUTH”
for stringquartet and computer
Hello Beethoven!!!!
With support from the Danish Society of Composers.
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JEPPE JUST CHRISTENSEN (DK):

Jeppe Just Christensen (b. 1978) studies at The Royal danish Music Academy 1999-2005 in music-theory and composition with Bent Sørensen, Hans Abrahamsen and Niels Rosing-Schow. Post-Gradute studies 2005-2006 in Karlsruhe with Wolfgang Rihm. Debut-concert spring 2008 from The academy of music in Copenhagen. Has participated in masterclasses among others with Rolf Wallin, Isabel Mundry and Tristan Murail. Recieved the Wilhelm Hansen Prize 2007. Gave a 3-day masterclass in composition in Morelia, Mexico 2007.

Kühler Krug (2007)
The title Kühler Krug refers to a place in the city of Karlsruhe, I actually never visited. I was living a bit outside Karlsruhe, and each time I took the bus into the city and we reached the central station, a voice in the bus said: Hauptbahnhof, bitte umsteigen. Nächste Haltestelle: Kühler Krug.
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ANDERS MONRAD (DK):

Anders Monrad was born in Copenhagen 1981. He has been playing the piano since the age of six, and began composing during his teenage years. As a composer Monrad is especially interested in the mediating of different traditions and conventions. This often involves for example the simultaneous presence of inspirations from “high” and “low” art in his works. He mainly participates himself as a performer in his own projects. He is also artistically active as a painter. He draws his inspiration from a very broad musical palette, within many different genres and traditions – this aspect is chiefly due to his year-long, deep interest in collecting old, obscure LP records - especially in the fields of electronic music, Psychedelic rock and various kitsch-styles. Monrad has got a BA-degree in Musicology and Business Economy from the University of Copenhagen and from the Copenhagen Business School. Since 2006 he has been studying composition at the Royal Danish Music Academy with Bent Sørensen, Hans Abrahamsen, Niels Rosing-Schow and Hans Peter Stubbe Teglbjærg.

Manifesto
Does it make any sense at all that the artist analyses his own work? Will
such an attempt to exceed the very work through a self-interpretation not simply become a part of the work itself? That is, the transcendence of the phenomenon constitutes itself in a paradoxical way as an immanent component of the phenomenon itself. The Example is known for its mistaking: Art-political manifestations are still just art, just as the avantgarde attempt to dissolve the art-institution with shit-art (sic) just turned out to be reproducing for the art institution itself. The Manifesto is Art; Shit is Art; Art is Art.

History is our witness to this matter: Art has differentiated itself from the sacral and aristocratic will: Modern art is the child of the enlightenmental urge for rationality, which is why it is now possible to lead an enlightened discourse about art – on arts own premises: Beauty has got its own beauty: Counterpoint, Functional Harmony, Tone Rows, Serialism etc.: Not just the proper portrayal of the Divine or the pomp and circumstance of the Court: Art now has its own rational logic.

This Differentiation-process is far from being unproblematic though. When Art is itself, it balances on the borderline of being enough in itself. Until Art is an irrelevant manoeuvre with exclusivity for an artistic elite, which (in its own opinion) knows better, and is more enlightened from the aesthetical tendencies of the surrounding public. The Proposed medicine for this problem is, that the differentiated art-institution must be coupled with the everyday praxis of the surrounding public: Art is also for the real life. But the question is, whether this medicine does not ignore the actual problem: The Disease. In the tribute to the reason potential of the rational differentiation, the possibility of an alternative to such a rationalistic Selfsufficiency is repressed. We remain sceptical towards rationality’s ability to solve the problem about the coupling of the art institutions to the everyday praxis. Rationality breeds rationality. Therefore we say: Rationality must be confronted with irrationality. Everything can be art. Everybody can be an artist. The rational art-appreciation must be confronted with this Irrational
truth. And we definitely say “confronted with”, Because it is not our errand to renounce any artistic rationalism to the benefit of the life-aesthetic myth, that it is life as such, which must be realized as an irrational work of art. What we say is simply: Art has an irrational potential. Use that! Art must dare to go out into the irrational borderland, where the everyday praxis belongs. This event does not have to decline into the failed belief, that the irrational – exemplified by the avant-gardism’s shit – must transcend the art institution’s differentiated rationalism. Far from it! The thesis is, that art’s irrational potential in a paradoxical way constitutes the rational art’s lifebuoy. When art’s rational self-logic has become a goal in itself (which it has!), it is up to irrationalism to break this self-sufficiency: Art’s irrational potential must then be recognized as rational. We are confronted with a paradox: Rationalism is irrational and irrationalism is rational. The actual irrational is the unreflected rationalism, whereas it is rational to challenge such a rationalism with the irrational. A Progressive artistic rationalism therefore requires that you reflect on it. Reflect. Expose the rationalism. Overdo it. Over-rationalize! Whereas the unreflected rational art renounces any irrationalism, the over-rationalized art greets it with open arms. It knows its worth. It doesn’t fear the confrontation with the irrational. It dares to incorporate the irrational. A R T
Anders Monrad & Lasse Suonperä Liebst
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NICOLAI WORSAAE (DK):

Nicolai Worsaae, born 1980, has studied composition at the Royal Danish Academy of Music from 2002-2007, with professor Bent Sørensen and Hans Abrahamsen. His works are mainly for smaller instrumental chamberensembles, often connected with a vocalpart. Pieces like his quintet Image obscure, the trio Quaint and his stringquartet Brillance are all exambles on pieces that combines the vocal and lyric element with the instrumental. Recently he has changed his compositional focus away from the lyric and detailed music in favour for a more agressive and insisting type of music like in his piece Brutalized Beauty from 2007-08 and his newly written orchestrapiece Zugendlos. Nicolai Worsaae has been played at festivals around the nordic countries and is one of the founders of the ensemble and concertproductiongroup Dygong from Copenhagen. He is expected to have his debutconcert from the soloistclass at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in 2009.

Fastbreaks
Fastbreaks was composed for the swedish ensemble, Curious Chamber Players and was played at their nordic tour in 2007. The piece was ment to be a part of a larger piece called “Brutalized beauty” wich is still under progress. The architecture of Fastbreaks is very rough and each section is clearly bounded from oneanother, as well as the music in these different sections have some sort of roughness and diversity. During my compositional progress I was very fashinated of the thought that one could cut between different soundtracks fast and surprisingly. In the case of writing for an ensemble this would be very difficult, so I decided to create a number of tracks with various types of music and so to speak jump between them. None of the cuts was to last more than approximately twenty seconds, so that it would give the impression of something restless. The ending is an opening into another type of music, wich is ment to lead directly to the next (unfinished) movement called “Breathing melody”.
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PERNILLE LOUISE SEJLUND (DK):

Pernillle Louise Sejlund (born in 1979) started her musical carrier in Radio Denmark's Girls Choir. This was where she had her musical unbringing and where she became acquainted with musical genres covering everything from renaissance music - via comtemporary composition music - to pop and jazz. In addition to singing Pernille has always composed music and enjoyed experimenting with music
when playing the piano. At the age of 19 she was awarded first prize in a composition competition and at the age of 22 she repeated her achievement when she once again won a composition competition. That triggered something in her and she now started to devote herself much more intensely to composing music.
Words, feelings, moods and atmosphere often form the starting point and basis of her music. In 2006, together with the Danish writer Bent Haller, she wrote a musical. In cooperation with the choreographer Ingrid Tranum she has composed the music for two dance performances. The first, "Make-Makeover" made it to the final in an international dance competition in Spain in the summer of 2007. The second was first performed at Den Sorte Diamant, Copenhagen, in the autumn of
2007. In the spring of 2008 you could witness the first performance of a piece of music for recorder and Chinese bamboo flute written for the two virtuosi Michala Petri (Denmark) and Chen Yue (China) at the Shanghai Concert Hall, China.
As a member of the Danish composers' association Komvest she is working actively to have her choir music as well as her chamber music performed. Recently she wrote choir music for the chamber choirs Hymnia and Coro Misto. In addition to writing composition music she also writes so-called popular music. Among other
things she works on a song project of her own which is writing Danish songs. She also makes musical arrangements for other bands and solists. Electronic music is a genre that she started to engage in only a couple of years ago, but Pernille expects
electronic music as well as film music to play an important and substantial role in her musical universe and activities in the future. She has had several works played on the radio and published. Pernille is studying at DKDM and taught composition by Niels Rosing-Schow, Bent Sørensen, Karsten Fundal and Hans Peter Stubbe-Teglbjærg. On top of that she has a bachelor degree in music from Københavns Universitet.

"Moby Dick - The Great White Whale"
Welcome to the ocean where the Beasts fight. The hunt of Moby Dick, the great white whale has begun. With inspiration from the heavy metal band Mastodon and their song Blood and Thunder where especially the guitar-riff has got a new meaning when played by two accordions. So... ...Are you brave enough to join this journey on the ocean and the battle of the Beasts? Who wins? Are you ready to witness? The story takes place in the depths of the ocean, from the belly of the Beast.
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RUNE GLERUP (DK):
Rune Glerup is born on the 12. november 1981 in Denmark. He started to compose at an early age, and has received composition lessons from composers Erik Højsgaard, Ejnar Kanding, Hans Abrahamsen, Anders Nordentoft and Walter Zimmermann. He has been studying and working in Berlin and Paris, and is currently living in Copenhagen. He has also studied conducting with Pierre-André Valade. Rune Glerup has received several stipends, notably from the Léonie Sonning Music Foundation in 2003, the Tuborg Foundation and Engineer Ernst B. Sunds Foundation in 2005. When he was only 19 he received a two-year working stipend from the Danish Arts Foundation who has supported his work
with working stipends since then, and in 2005 awarded him with the talent development scholarship. Among others, Rune Glerup is working with ensembles such as Ensemble Alternance, Contemporánea and Esbjerg Ensemble.

La Rose pulvérisée
The starting point is a poetic idea expressed in the title, a pulverised rose. One could say that the first movement – or even the very first chord in the violin – is the explosion that pulverises the rose, there maining movements are the fragments of the rose, theparticles, the splinters. In this image, there is aparadox: At one extremity we have the rose, something very beautiful and poetic (with a strong reference totradition), and at the other we have the explosion,something very violent and aggressive (destruction oftradition), and it's the oscillation between these two extremities that constitutes the character of the piece, at once violent and fragile.
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TOKE BRORSON ODIN (DK):

I am a master student at the Department of Musicology, University of Copenhagen, and has been composing for some time now, as well as arranging concerts with various composing groups. I play percussion, piano and sing, and I have been studying the Vietnamese instrument dan bau in Hanoi, Vietnam. During my stay there I have been great inspired by Vietnamese musical traditions, instruments
and singing. I engage in sound production as well. Beside being interested in music, I have great interest in photography and philosophy among other things.

Metals
I am participating with the piece Metals, which is for clarinet, cello and tape. The tape part is made out of a 30-sec. recording of the Vietnamese instrument dan tranh, which is a zither with 16 strings (or more). The feeling of the piece is quite metal-like, and the name has been given for that reason. The tape-part involves many kinds of distortion.
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DAVíð BRYNJAR FRANZSON (IS):

BIO:
Davíð Brynjar Franzson is an Icelandic composer of unrelenting and
energized music, currently residing in New York. His works have been
commissioned and performed by ensembles such as Elision, asamisimasa, Oslo Sinfonietta, Ensemble Adapter, Caput, Aton, +/-, Red Fish Blue Fish and Inauthentica. His music has been performed at festivals such as Maerz Musik, Global Interplay, 2006 ISCM World New Music festival, Dark Days of Modern Music, and Running Hoofs festival. His installation S-Be2 will be on display at the 2008 ISCM World New Music Days in October.

WORK:
the Failure of Surface

Two instruments take seperate paths, each exploring their native sound. When heard together – their sounds interacting – they simulate a complex surface.The simplest form of playing together, each instruments extends the other.The tape was
prepared at EMS Stockholm
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PáLL IVAN PáLSSON (IS):

BIO:
Páll Ivan Pálsson is a founding member of the agressive composers society SLÁTUR and is firmly against his own mental and physical death.

WORK:
Hvítasuð  (4:33)

Do-It-Yourself  with cups & noise
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Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir (IS):

BIO:
Kristín Þóra Haraldsdóttir is currently studying viola and composition at Iceland Accademy of the Arts, with Úlfar Ingi Haraldsson as her composition teacher. Earlier studies include a BA in general music studies, improvisation and vocal studies. She played the violin from the age of ten and has been a member of several bands through the years, including Stórsveit Nix Noltes and Hafdís and Band, as well as she has performed with such musicians as Teitur and Benni Hemm Hemm and played in symphony and chamber orchestras. She has arranged and played strings on albums, and been a co- comoser of theater music.

WORK:
Þríhringningur is something between a triangle and a circle.  
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Þráinn Hjálmarsson (IS):

BIO:
Þráinn Hjálmarsson (Born in 1987) is a member of S.l.á.t.u.R (a radical composer collective in Iceland) and has worked with musicians such as Frank Denyer, James Fulkerson and Fred Frith. Interested in free improvisation and geometry. A flautist and a improviser. A student of Atli Ingólfsson at the Iceland academy of arts.

WORK:
Metafýsísk sjálfskoðun ber engan ávöxt, í staðinn þarf að beita kerfisbundnum og markvissum tilraunum til að verða að einhverju ráðið. Composed for 4 Þránophones and radios.
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Ólafur Björn Ólafsson (IS):

BIO:
Ólafur Björn Ólafsson was born in 1978 in Reykjavik where he lives today.
He studied Sonology at The Royal Conservatory in Den Haag in 2000 - 2001 and composition at The Icelandic Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík 2001 - 2004.

WORK:
Upplausn was written in Berlin during the winter of  2003 to 2004, where I was an exchange student at Universitaet der Kunste. The piece is a part of my final exam from the Icelandic University of the Arts where I studied composition during the years 2001 to 2004.
Upplausn was written for a chamber orchestra involving piccolo and traverso flutes, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, french horn, trombone, three percussionists, a string quintet and electronics realised with the software MaxMSP.

Upplausn is in three parts:

I. a) Upplausn
   b) Spectral Rod
II. Ritmico
III. Þjóðlag (Folk Song)
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Ingi Garðar Erlendsson (IS):

BIO:
Ingi Garðar Erlendsson is born 1980. He is studying in the Royal Concervatorie in The Hague.

WORK:
S:I is written for Contrabassoon.
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Daníel Bjarnason (IS):

BIO:

WORK:
Öll hljóð bíða þagnar
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Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson (IS):

BIO:
    Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1982. Began music studies at the age of seven. In 2005 he graduated from The Iceland Academy of Arts. There he studied composition with Dr.Ulfar Haraldsson and Hilmar Thordarson. Recently Gudmundur graduated with a M.A. degree in composition from Mills College. There he studied with Alvin Curran, Fred Frith and John Bischoff. He has attended masterclasses with Tristan Murail,  Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pauline Oliveros and Clarence Barlow.
     His compositions have been performed at festivals such as U.N.M., Reno Interdisciplinary Arts Festival, ESAP 2007 and Music for People and Thingamajigs. His music has been performed by ensembles such as Quartet San Francisco (US), The Zapolski Quartet (DK) and Atón/Njútón (IS).
      Guðmundur Steinn was the musical director of an experimental animated film named Hidebound which won a special prize for music at the NUFF young film makers festival in Norway. He has also been active as a improviser and has performed in that context with musicians such as Steve Hubback, Fred Frith, Andrew D'Angelo and Ad Peijnenburg. His music has appeared on various records which are available from Bad Taste (Reykjavik) and Edgetone (San Francisco).

WORK:
   
Fragments of the same shape have been drawn apart. Over the course of the piece they make an attempt to reassemble. The fragments are drawn from a rhythmic vocabulary which necessitates a new type of notation, notation with moving images. Therefore the performers need to project through them the light that is being projected onto them by a computer screen. This way a very controlled “aperiodicity” can be achieved. The rhythm has clear patterns and repetitions although it has no grid to measure itself against. Elastic musical gestures appear. The instruments, the performers and the computer will try to achieve one homogeneous entity.
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LINA BRAATEN (NO), Piano
Lina Braaten finished her Master Diploma exam at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2005, after previous studies in Bergen, Helsinki and Oslo. She has worked as a freelance pianist since then, giving concerts in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Scotland, the Seychelles and Japan. In 2003 she won 1st price in the Kokkola Lied Duo Competition, and in 2004 she won 3rd price in Malmö Nordic Piano Competition. She is also an accompanist at the Norwegian Academy of Music and at Barratt-Dues Institute of Music in Oslo.
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MATHIAS GILLEBO (NO), Tenor
Mathias Gillebo, tenor, is a first-year student at The Oslo National Academy of Opera where he takes lessons with professor Svein Bjørkøy.

His repertoire spans from early music, through baroque and classical to contemporary music. He is frequently doing concerts and recitals, and is engaged throughout the country doing cantatas and oratorios such as G.F. Händel´s Messiah and J.S. Bach´s Christmas oratorio. This summer he gave a recital in Camebridge with R. Schumann´s Dichterliebe, and performed at The Risør Festival of Chamber Music as soloist in J. Haydn´s Nelson Mass and J.S. Bach´s cantata Wir danken dir, Gott.
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BRITT PERNILLE FRØHOLM (NO), Hardangerfiddle

Britt Pernille Frøholm come from Hornindal in the west coast fjords of Norway and play violin and hardangerfiddle. She started to play at 9, and learned many tunes from her grandfather Matias Frøholm. Most of the music she plays originate from the Norwegian west coast areas, but she also plays contemporary music for the hardangerfiddle.
Britt Pernille Frøholm got her education at the Ole Bull Academy, theNorwegian Academy of Music, and College of Telemark/Rauland where she graduated with a masters degree in Norwegian traditional arts in 2006 with a thesis on the sound of the hardangerfiddle. After finishing her studies, she settled in Oslo where she now works full time as a freelance musician.
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GEORGE KENTROS (SE), violin:

The Swedish-American violinist George Kentros has studied at the Yale University and Mannes School of Music in USA, and at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. During the last years he has worked intensively with new music, especially with the quartet ”pärlor för svin”, founded by Kentros in 1995. Until now he has commissioned and performed more than 100 works by composers from 19 countries, and appeared as soloist, chamber-musician and actor around Europe, as well as in USA and Japan.
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KARIN HELLQVIST (SE), violin:

Karin Hellqvist was born in 1983 in Stjärnsund and has studied at the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. The coming autumn she will start her Master-studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and as part of the studies she will play with Oslo Sinfonietta. Karin Hellqvist has as a member of ensembles such as Curious Chamber Players and Trivium regularly commissioned and performed new pieces by young nordic composers. During the year of 2008, Karin will perform at festivals such as Ultima, UNM and Spor Århus. 
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ERICA ROOZENDAL, accordion:

Erica Roozendaal started to play accordion at the age of 8 in her homevillage in Holland. In her youth, she played lots of folkmusic and enjoyed compising and playing the piano as well. With the age of 15, she discoverd the classical accordion which made a big inpression at her. She entered the conservatory of Rotterdam the year after and studied there for one year with Harriet Markus. Due to closing of this department, she continued classical accordion in Enschede and started Argentinian tango with bandoneon in Rotterdam. After two years doing two studies, she decided to only continue the accordion because she felt this was the most revieling instrument for her. Erica went to Copenhagen to study with James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll. After her studies, she wants to perfom and teach and be and open-minded, musical and expressive musician.
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ASAMISIMASA (NO)

asamisimasa was founded in 2001 in order to perform the music of Mathias Spahlinger. The ensemble has given concerts all over Northern Europe and Mongolia, and worked with composers such as Aldo Clementi, Nicolaus A. Huber, Michael Finnessy, Øyvind Torvund, Helmut Lachenmann, Simon Steen-Andersen, Ole-Henrik Moe jr, Trond Reinholdtsen among others. Concert recordings have been played on radio in Norway, Sweden, England and Germany. Coming projects include a portrait of Stockhausen at this years Ultima-festival, a Spahlinger-festival, concerts in the Berliner Philharmonie, and a new work of Alvin Lucier. asamsismasa receives support from the Norwegian Culture Council.
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ANDREA CAROLA KIEFER, accordion:

Andrea Carola Kiefer, born in Saarbrücken, Germany, studied accordion with Stefan Hussong (1995 – 2005) at ``Hermann-Zilcher''-Conservatory and Musikhochschule Würzburg. In parallel, she studied Elementary Music Pedagogics with Barbara Metzger. After both diplomas of pedagogy and
arts, she finished her postgraduate accordion studies receiving the concert diploma. In 2003, she started to study at Sibelius Academy with Matti Rantanen, proceeding postgraduate studies since spring 2004.  Additional studies of contemporary chamber music in Cologne supplement her postgraduate study plan.  She attended master classes amongst others with Mie Miki, Hugo Noth, Teodoro Anzellotti, and Joseph Macerollo. In 2001 – 2003, she taught accordion at the
University of Würzburg.

In various competitions, Kiefer was awarded first and second prizes in solo as well as chamber music category. She received Kulturförderpreis Saar and special prize for the interpretation of contemporary music by Saarländischer Rundfunk in 1995.  In 1998, she was elected to Yehudi- Menuhin-Foundation Live Music Now. She was awarded a grant by Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 2002 and 2nd prize at International Wolfgang-Jacobi-Competition in 2003. She was selected for Nachwuchsforum 2004 of German Association of Contemporary Music and received grants by DAAD.

She concentrates on contemporary solo and chamber music and performed in ensembles like Das Neue Ensemble (Hannover), Klangkörper Schweiz, founded Duo AZAK, duoPlus, Ensemble Trialoge, and ensemble cras, appeared at festivals like World Music Days, and Schreyahner Herbst.
In cooperation with composers, she initiated and premiered about fifteen new works.  She recorded for various broadcasting corporations (SR, hr, BR, DLF and YLE Finland), radio plays and CD productions.
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JUTTA SEPPINEN (FI), mezzosoprano:

Mezzo Soprano Jutta Seppinen is a versatile musician. She is a
graduate of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, having completed studies
in piano, conducting and theory, in addition to intensive vocal
studies with Eeva-Liisa Saarinen. Jutta Seppinen has participated in
several master classes in Finland, Sweden and France. In the Fall 2007
she completed her final voice examination with honors. Seppinen
has performed at music festivals and concert series, and worked as a
soloist, chamber musician and choir director in several European
countries and the United States. Her repertory spans works from
baroque to contemporary in the genres of lied and opera, including
first performances. Additionally, Seppinen has been awarded at
choir competitions in Finland. She recently premiered a
series of songs in Nynorsk by Mika Pohjola, composed to poems by Olav
H. Hauge. Her many upcoming engagements include the Nordic Music Days,
where she will be one of the main soloists of the opera Solity:d by
Perttu Haapanen. The Finnish composer Heinz-Juhani Hofmann is
currently writing a monolog opera which Jutta Seppinen will premiere
next year.
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LASSE SUONPARÄ LIEBST :

Lasse Suonperä Liebst, is 26 years old and has a Bachelors degree in sociology from University of Copenhagen. Currently he is enrolled in the Masters program. Fields of special interests are social philosophy, work-life studies and aesthetics.



KJELL TORE INNERVIK (NO), percussion:

Kjell Tore Innervik has attracted attention both in Norway and abroad as
an individual artist who is not afraid to explore new music and new (and
often humorous) ways of communicating through music. Innervik studied
percussion at the Norwegian Academy of Music, completing his Diploma in
advanced performing studies in 2003. Innervik currently holds a fellowship
on the artistic research and development programme at the Norwegian
Academy of Music, and will soon take up a post-doctoral fellowship there.

Over the last three years, Innervik has held over 180 concerts both in
Norway and elsewhere in Europe. He has won several competitions, and was
selected to take part in the Norwegian Concert Institute's prestigious
young artists' programme, INTRO Classical, in 2004.
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GEIR JOHANSEN (NO), percussion:

My Name is Geir Johansen and I’m a 21-year-old percussionist from Hurum in Buskerud. At the moment I’m living in Oslo and studying classical percussion in my third year at the Norwegian Academy of Music. I’m also playing a lot of drumset, not just classical percussion, so I’m playing in a jazz-rock band called Vulgeir.  I’ve played a lot in school bands, symphonic bands and symphony orchestras, some professional but mostly semi-professional orchestras at the moment.
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SILJE AKER JOHNSEN (NO), soprano:

Silje studied for her Bachelor Degree in singing at the Grieg Academy, Bergen and Universität der Künste, Berlin.  She finished her Masters Degree at Norwegian Academy of Music in 2007, where she studied with Prof. Svein Bjørkøy and Prof. Håkan Hagegård.  She has also taken privat lessons with Prof. Julie Kaufmann and attended courses with Georges Aperghis.
 
Silje is active as a concert and recital singer around Norway and as soloist in church music.  She has performed the soprano parts in works such as Handel's Messiah, Brahms' Requiem, Bach cantatas, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater.  
 
She has performed the female main part in the 12 tone chamber opera A Gentle Spirit by John Tavener, with Berliner Kammeroper and she recently performed the role as Mrs. Jenkins in the world premier of The Witches by Marcus Paus.
 
Silje takes a great interest in contemporary music and has a large repertory in this field.  She has world premiered pieces by several Norwegian composers, among them Ruben Gjertsen, Lene Grenager and Therese Birkelund.  She has also worked with music for solo voice in combination with choreographer Gunnhild Bjørnsgård.  
 
In spring 2008, Silje won the Fartein Valen Scholarship to study further the music of the Second Vienna School and german contemporary music in Berlin and to promote the songs of Fartein Valen.
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ERIK FOSSEN NILSEN, percussion:

I was born (1987) and raised in Sylling/Lier, and I started playing the drums when I was 13. A few years later I was introduced to mallet percussion instruments like the xylophone and the marimba, which probably was the most important reason that I chose the music department at St. Hallvard upper secondary school. My teachers were Trond Madsen (for a short period) and Kjell Tore Innervik. The last year, I also had lessons with Kjell Samkopf, in the talent programme “Young musicians” at the Norwegian Academy of Music. After these three years, I’ve had one year playing jazz vibraphone at the Agder folk high school, and one year serving the military as a musician in the Royal Norwegian Navy Band. I’m attending the Norwegian Academy of Music from august 2008, studying classical percussion.
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RICHARD CRAIG, flute:

Richard Craig was born in Glasgow and studied flute at the Royal
Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with Richard Blake and Sheena
Gordon. Graduating in 2003 with a degree and solo diploma cum laude,
he continued his studies (supported by the Scottish International
Educational Trust and a Dewar Arts award) at the Conservatoire
National de Region Strasbourg with Mario Caroli and Claire
Gentilhomme. In 2006 he received a diplôme de spécialisation from the
CNR de Strasbourg, achieving the highest award possible: 'unanimité du
jury'. During this time Richard also received guidance from
Pierre-Yves Artaud and more recently, Roberto Fabbriciani, André
Richard and the SWR EXPERIMENTAL studio, Freiburg. He now has a
burgeoning international career performing with many of Europe's
finest groups and musicians. Richard has quietly risen to be one of
the most important interpreters in his generation, singularised by his
unflinching approach to programming and performance. Alongside his
ability to interpret works of the highest musical and technical
intricacy, he also has a profound understanding of the repertoire, the
instrument, and its context in the music of today. Involved in
researching all aspects of the flute and new music, Richard dedicates
his time to commissioning, performing, collaborating with composers
and educating a new generation of artists.
He has worked with some of the most celebrated composers of our time:
James Dillon, Ivan Fedele, Kaija Saariaho, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut
Lachenmann and Salvatore Sciarrino. In 2005, Richard gave his London
debut with the Park Lane Group and was received to critical acclaim:
"Richard Craig is a brilliant flautist." (The Times)
"...Virtuosity at its most beguiling…a tour de force.." (The Guardian)
"..a virtuoso of the first order.." (The Herald)

Richard is also a laureate of numerous international competitions:
Grand Prix and a Primo Speciale (for his performance of works by
Sciarrino) from the XIth and XIIth L'Accademia Concordia Concorso
Internazionale di Interpretazione di Musica Contemporanea, Italy and
'prix du jury' from the XIVth Penderecki international chamber music
competition, Poland.
As a chamber musician, he performs with new music groups throughout
Europe such as Smash Ensemble (Spain), +- (UK) , Research Ensemble
(U.K), musikFabrik (DE) KammarensembleN (SW) as well as working
alongside members of Ensemble Modern and Elision. As a pedagogue he
has given classes and workshops to musicians around the world
(Columbia University, New York, CNR Strasbourg, France, Cork
University, Ireland, Leeds University, Aberdeen University, and Napier
University Edinburgh), an activity that he sees as vital to the music
of our time.
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ENSEMBLE ARTERIOL (NO)

Mats Vangen, clarinet, Tove Törngren, cello and Marita Igelkjøn, piano, founded Ensemble Arteriol in 2006. The trio perform both classical and modern repertoire and cooperates often with composers, dancers, filmmakers and actors.
They have performed at the Ultima festival and the swedish serie Music at castles, among others, and they now prepare a tour with Rikskonsertene.
They finish their master studies in chamber music at Norges Musikkhøgskole this autumn.
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CAMILLA V. BARRATT-DUE, accordion:

Camilla V. Barratt-due started to play the accordeon at the age of seven and was soon participating in national competitions in Norway.
In 2004 she started her studies with Frode Haltli and has from 2006 been a student at the Royal Academy for Classical Music in Copenhagen, where she is studying with Geir Draugsvold and James Crab.
In addition to a classical study is she active in the rhythmical field and has recently worked  with musicians and bands such as  Kresten Osgood, Carl Bergstrøm Nielsen, Henrik Sundt and Little Red Suetcase.
She is a member of "the mobiles", a band existing of two musicians, two dancers and a visual designer, which this year was supported by workshop scenen ( KBH) to tour the København - Malmø area.
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EMBRIK SNERTE (b.1974), bassoon:

Embrik Snerte studied in Oslo with Eirik Birkeland, and in London with Rachel Gough.  He is currently working as alt. solo bassoon player in The Norwegian Opera & Ballet, and the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra – KORK .  He is one of the founders of Ensemble Ernst, a contemporary music ensemble based in Norway, in which he is also an active musician.  In April he world premiered the bassoon concert of Jon Øyvind Ness with FMKN and Arvid Engegård.  Snerte is an all round musician who also plays a lot of jazz and rhythmical music, amongst others in Trygve Seim Ensemble and Lars Andreas Haug Quintet.
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CECILIE HESSELBERG LØKEN, flute:

Cecilie Hesselberg Løken  is one of our most established soloists and has performed at the most prestigious stages in the world.  She studied the flute at the Royal Academy of Music in London and she had her international debut as a soloist in Zurich, conducted by Mariss Jansons. 
I 1993 she won the Prinsesse Astrids Musikkpris. Cecilie has been soloist with many symphony orchestras and she recieved great critical acclaim in The Times, Der Bund and Aftenposten, among others.
  Since the age of 21, she has been employed by Scandinavian symphony orchestras.
She was soloflutist in Den Norske Opera 1997-99, The Royal Opera in Stockholm 1999-2002 and Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester 2007-  .
Cecilie has been contracted as soloflutist with some of Europe’s leading orchestras, such as Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Abbado and Harding), Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Gergiev) and Le Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels.
  She has done recordings for Deutsche Gramofon and has released two solocds.
  In 2005-07 she recieved the Norwegian State’s Artist’s salary. She regularly gives masterclasses, and is recognized to be one of Europe’s leading teachers.
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ODD NILSEN, trumpet:

studied at the Norwegian Academy of music, where he completed his Masters degree in Music Performance.  He plays regularly in Ensemble Ernst, as well as working as solo trumpet player in the Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra – KORK.  He has also worked as solo trumpet player in Oulu Symphony Orchestra and Turku Philharmonic Orchestra.
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STIAN AASE (1977), accordion :

Stian Aase grew up on the Island Sotra, Norway. At age 9, he started to play the accordion with teacher Truls W. Barnung, and continued later with teachers Jostein Stalheim and Olav Ullestad. Aase has completed five years at the Norwegian Academy of Music (1997-2002) with practical studies on the accordion with Erik Bergene and Jon Faukstad, as well as pedagogic training with Anders Grøthe. Stian Aase is a versatile musician who plays music from many different genres. He performs solo, as well as with different groups, in everything from concert halls to the dance stage. He has also been used as a theatre musician, seminar instructor, and has established himself as a very competent accordion teacher. Aase plays with AskerLadden, Bjørgo Band and the duo Røyseng/Aase. He also works as a teacher at the Ås music school, and at the Asker Accordion centre, Norway.
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JOACHIM KJELSAAS KWETZINSKY (b. 1978), piano:

completed his Master degree (Diploma) in Music Performance at The Norwegian Academy of Music in 2004, where he had been studying with Prof. Einar Steen-Nøkleberg.  In May 2004 he won the Intro-Classical program in Bergen.  This is a three year launching program for young talented musicians funded by Rikskonsertene.
He is currently working as free-lance pianist, and the previous years he has done a number of solo and chambermusic performances in Norway and other countries throughout Europe.  Although his repertoire has great variety in styles and genres, Kwetzinsky has often been used as a contemporary pianist.  He has played in festivals such as Ultima, Happy Days and of course the UNM-festival.
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ØYVIND MEHUS, violin:

has studied at the Music conservatory in Trondheim, and the Norwegian Academy of  Music.  He is currently working as a freelancer in Norway and abroad, focusing on chamber music of all kinds.
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MIA HEIKKINEN, soprano:

started her classical vocal studies at the Paimio music institute. Since 2003 she has been studying at the Sibelius-Academy with Aulikki Eerola. Two years later, she continued her studies in the opera department. In addition, Heikkinen studies vocal pedagogics at the Arts Academy of the University of Applied Sciences in Turku (Turun ammattikorkeakoulun Taideakatemiassa).
So far she participated in numerous master classes, amongst others with Eva Blahová,
ElisabethWerres,Monica Groop, and Udo Reinemann. In classical Lied, she took lessons with Ilmo Ranta, Eero Heinonen, Pentti Kotiranta, and Collin Hansen. Heikkinen sung the soprano solo part in Bacchianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Villa-Lobos, andMahler’s symphony No. 4, and appeared as a soloist of various choirs. She performed a.o. at the Helsingin Urkukesä, premiered songs by Maija Hynninen at the concerts of Korvat auki-association, and participated in a recording of Maasalo’s Christmas Oratorio. In 2007 she received a grant by the Pro Musica-foundation. Heikkinen was awarded the 1st prize in the Kangasniemi singing competition in summer 2007.
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PETER SZILVAY
Peter Szilvay first came to the fore as a conductor with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in 1996, ending his diploma studies at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo. He was soon spotted as an interesting personal profile among young Norwegian conductors: he was conductor in residence with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in the period 1998 – 2000, and he won the Norwegian competition ‘Conductor of the Year’ in 1998, followed by Mariss Jansons’ invitation to serve as his assistant.
Peter Szilvay has gained experience from working with a number of orchestras: the St Petersburg Philharmonic as well as Scandinavian symphony orchestras and all the leading Norwegian orchestras. His versatility has led him into working in the opera field and on several ballet projects for the Norwegian Opera. He has worked extensively with Norwegian military bands, and he has made his positive mark in the field of contemporary music with several leading contemporary music ensembles. He has also for some time been a part of the artistic leadership of the annual Winter Music Festival at Røros.
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KARI LISE HØGSETH (NO)
Kari Lise Høgseth (mezzo soprano) born in Skien, Norway, in 1982.
She is finishing her masters degeree in opera at Oslo National Academy of the Arts in the spring  of -09 with Anne Nyborg as her main teacher. Kari Lise has a bachelor in classical singing from the Grieg Acadamy at the University of Bergen. At the National Academy of the arts she has sung the parts of Ramiro in Mozart´s La finta giardiniera and Mrs. Herring in Britten´s Albert Herring. Kari Lise has also performed in exerpts of the following operas: Ottavia in The coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi, Hänsel in Humperdinck´s Hänsel und Gretel, Ariodante in Händel´s Ariodante, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and the 3rd Lady in The magic Flute by Mozart. She has done recitals with lied cycles such as Grieg´s Haugtussa, Shumann´s Frauenliebe und leben and A charm of Lullabies by Britten. Other solo appearances include Gloria by Vivaldi, Stabat Mater by Pergolesi, masses by Mozart, The Christmas oratorio and other cantatas by J. S. Bach.
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OSLO SINFONIETTA

PER SIGMUND THORP

NMH SINFONITTA

JAMES DUDDLE
   
HANS PETTER MÆHLE

OSLO SOLISTENSEMBLE