Barokkanerne and the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra combined forces in January 2018 to form Barokkanerne – Norwegian Baroque Ensemble. Both ensembles were established at the end of the 1980s as the very first independent professional baroque orchestras on period instruments in Scandinavia. Since then they have been cornerstones in building up a Norwegian Early Music scene with concert series in Oslo, concert tours in Norway and abroad, countless festival performances, and continual efforts to improve competence within Early Music among youth, students, amateurs and professionals. The two ensembles’ collective discography is also substantial. A focus of NBO has been baroque music composed in Norway – as, for example, in its last release under the direction of Gottfried von der Goltz, with music of Johan Daniel and Johan Heinrich Berlin, father and son, who resided in Trondheim (SIMAX, 2014). For their part, Barokkanerne have featured young, Norwegian Early Music talents such as harpsichordist Christian Kjos on the recording “Empfinsamkeit!”, with music of CPE Bach (LAWO, 2013), and recorder player Ingeborg Christophersen on its previous release, “Recordare Venezia” (LAWO, 2017), with a musical spectrum of composers who were active in Venice.
Barokkanerne collaborate with outstanding performers as artistic directors and soloists. Former artistic director for NBO, baroque cellist Kristin von der Goltz, has been the new ensemble’s main guest leader in its first season, with three productions in 2018. Besides Kristin von der Goltz and Alfredo Bernardini, Barokkanerne have collaborated with many other top international performers, including Rachel Podger, Emma Kirkby, Kati Debretzeni, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Andrew Lawrence-King. Barokkanerne are administered by Stiftelsen Norsk Barokkorkester and are led by a triumvirate consisting of Johan Nicolai Mohn, Andreas Johnson and Mari Giske and supported by an artistic council made up of Alfredo Bernardini, Marianne Beate Kielland and Christian Kjos. Barokkanerne (NBE) receive support from Arts Council Norway, the Bergesen Foundation, and the Anders Sveaas’ Charitable Foundation.

Born in Rome, Alfredo Bernardini moved to Holland at the age of twenty to specialize in the baroque oboe and Early Music at the Royal Conservatory at the Hague, studying with Bruce Haynes and Ku Ebbinge, among others. Today Bernardini is recognized as one of the foremost baroque oboe specialists in the world. The leading Early Music groups with which he has performed include Hesperion XX, Le Concert Des Nations, La Petite Bande, Das Freiburger Barockorchester, The English Concert, Bach Collegium Japan, and The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.
In 1989, together with the brothers Paolo and Alberto Grazzi, he founded the ensemble ZEFIRO, which has gained international acclaim. Bernardini’s numerous recordings have received important prizes, including the Cannes Classical Awards in 1995 for Vivaldi’s Concertos for Oboe on the Astrèe Naìve label. He has performed regularly as guest leader of baroque ensembles in Europe, Canada, Australia, Cuba, and Israel, and with the European Union Baroque Orchestra. In January 2013 he led the first baroque orchestra in the internationally renowned project El Sistema de Musica in Venezuela. In addition to his performance career, Bernardini researches the history of wind instruments and makes copies of historical oboes, and as of 2014 he is professor of baroque oboe at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Since 2009 he has been a much beloved guest leader for Barokkanerne, and he can also be heard on two of our earlier releases, “Empfindsamkeit!” (LAWO, 2013) and “TotallyTelemann” (LAWO, 2015).