Hege Høisæter

Hege Høisæter was born and raised in Bergen. She studied in England, first privately in London, then at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. She continued her studies at the National Academy of Opera in Oslo.
  Hege was a regular soloist with the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet for 14 years until her retirement in 2016. All the while she has sung many concerts, both church and orchestral music, and has performed in numerous chamber music settings with music from different periods. Since her student days she has regularly premiered Norwegian works in both large and small arenas.
  Opera roles Hege has sung include Cornelia (Handel/Julius Caesar), Gunhild (Kverndokk/Fourth Night Watch), Fionula (Kverndokk/Around the World in 80 Days), Ottavia (Monteverdi/Poppea), Rebekka (Haugland/Rebekka), Jocaste (Stravinsky/Oedipus Rex), Kabanicha (Janacek/ Kátya Kabanová), The Neighbour (Wallin/Elysium), Edith (Skouen/Ballerina), Erda, Fricka, 1st Norn and Waltraute (Wagner/Ring Cycle), and The Countess (Tchaikovsky/The Queen of Spades). Over the years she has worked closely with opera directors Stefan Herheim, Peter Konwitschny, Willy Decker and Ole Anders Tandberg, among others, and she has sung under the baton of such conductors as John Fiore, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Alessandro De Marchi, Antonino Fogliani and Lothar Koenigs. Hege has sung countless roles and innumerable concerts with the Opera Orchestra, and she has appeared with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, NOSO (Arctic Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra), Oslo Sinfonietta, and the Italian baroque ensemble Armoniosa. She has been a frequent guest at the Casa dei Mezzo International Music Festival on the island of Crete, and her song and role interpretations have been broadcast numerous times on Norwegian Radio and TV (NRK) and via the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
  Following her retirement from the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, Hege’s career has continued on two parallel tracks: one consisting of opera roles within the mature mezzo range in Norway and abroad (including the entire Ring Cycle at the Gothenburg Opera); the other exploring chamber music settings that encompass recordings and concerts at home and around Europe.