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).

Berit Norbakken Solset is one of Norway’s leading sopranos. After graduating from the Norwegian Academy of Music, she won the 2006 INTRO-classical competition, the prestigious launch programme sponsored by Concerts Norway. Besides appearing often as soloist in oratorios, passions and masses, Solset performs solo concerts at Norway’s major festivals. She has also sung opera with great success. She collaborates closely with conductor Juanjo Mena, with whom she regularly appears in concert. Solset performs as soloist in major concert halls, with leading orchestras and conductors like Robert King, Daniel Reuss, Erik Nielsen, Andreas Spering, Olof Boman and Ottavio Dantone.

“A singer with such charisma challenged her colleagues.” (Dreh-Punkt-Kultur) Mezzo-soprano Marianne Beate Kielland is famous for her strong stage presence and musical integrity. Gramophone Magazine writes about her: “The mezzo-soprano is quite outstanding: strong, firm, sensitive in modulations, imaginative in her treatment of words, with a voice pure in quality, wide in range and unfalteringly true in intonation.” She graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where she studied with Svein Bjørkøy. Her other teachers have included Oren Brown and Barbara Bonney. Considered today one of Europe’s leading singers, she performs regularly on major concert stages in Europe, America and The East with conductors such as Masaaki Suzuki, Andrew Manze, Petr Popelka, Michel Corboz, Leonardo Alarcon, Herbert Blomstedt, Jordi Savall, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Fabio Biondi and René Jacobs.
In 2012 she received a Grammy nomination in the category ‘Best Classical Vocal Solo’ for her recording of Veslemøy Synsk by the composer Olav Anton Thommessen. In 2021 she received a prestigious OPUS Klassik nomination in the category ‘Female Singer of the Year’ for her recording of Schumann Lieder. With more than sixty other albums in addition to a demanding concert schedule, Marianne Beate Kielland is established as an exceptional performer with a wide-ranging repertoire from baroque to contemporary.
Together with pianist Nils Anders Mortensen she has previously released 12 recordings on the LAWO Classics label: Früh (LWC1033), Sæle jolekveld (LWC1040), Grieg (LWC1059), Young Elling (LWC1072), The New Song (LWC1097), Whispering Mozart (LWC1111), Songs: Kielland/Dørumsgaard (LWC1145), Einsamkeit – Songs by Mahler (LWC1157), Eivind Groven Songs (LWC1178), Schumann Lieder (LWC1197) with baritone Johannes Weisser, and Så kort ein sommar menneska har – Songs by Gisle Kverndokk (LWC1220), and Sigurd Lie Songs, Vol. 1 (LWC1256).
In 2015 she released Påsketid (LWC1077) with violinist Elise Båtnes and organist Kåre Nordstoga, in 2017 Terra Nova (LWC1125) with composer and pianist Jan Gunnar Hoff, in 2020 The Lofoten Oratorio by Ketil Bjørnstad (LWC1202) with Lofoten Voices and MinEnsemblet, in 2022 Lamento (LWC1226), a collection of baroque laments, with Oslo Circles, as well as Jean Sibelius: Orchestral Songs (LWC1239) with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Anders J. Dahlin is regarded as one of the leading haute-contre tenors of his generation. Conductors with whom he works on a regular basis include Christophe Rousset, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, William Christie, Emmanuelle Haïm, Hervé Niquet, Alexis Kossenko, Francois-Xavier Roth, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon and Mark Minkowski. With a repertoire ranging from baroque to Britten, Dahlin is in frequent demand as a concert soloist and has performed on most of the important concert stages in Europe. As opera soloist he has sung, among others, the title roles in the Rameau operas “Zoroastre” (in Amsterdam and at Drottningholm Palace Theatre in Stockholm) and “Castor et Pollux” (in Salle Pleyel, Paris); Jason in Charpentier’s “Médée” at TCE, Paris, and David in “David et Jonathas” with the Pinchgut Opera in Sydney; and in 2017 Titus in the critically acclaimed production of Mozart’s “La clemenza di Tito” with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Moreover, he appears in a number of other main roles in operas of Charpentier, Monteverdi, Lully, Demarest, Campra, Gluck and Mozart, among others, and he has received significant international recognition as the Evangelist in Bach’s Passions. In 2014 Dahlin was awarded a stipend from the prestigious Jussi Björling Memorial Foundation.

Having established himself in a short time as one of Norway’s leading singers, Halvor F. Melien is today a much sought-after baritone who performs regularly in Scandinavia, Europe and Asia. He has worked with Early Music specialists Paul Agnew, Fabio Biondi, Alessandro De Marchi and Andrew Lawrence-King, among others, and he is a versatile singer with a wide-ranging repertoire of operas, oratorios, masses, cantantas, and song cycles in all styles. He has sung with top international orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ho-Chi-Minh City Symphony Orchestra, as well as with leading Norwegian symphony orchestras and ensembles, including the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Trondheim Soloists, and Oslo Sinfonietta. He has also been engaged as soloist at the Norwegian National Opera and on other opera stages, in church music contexts, and in smaller settings. He has received special recognition for his Bach interpretations. Moreover, he has premiered and recorded works of contemporary composers, including Ørjan Matre, Knut Vaage and Øyvind Mæland. The German Lied from Schubert and Schumann via Mahler to Webern is also an important part of his repertoire and he is at present part of two Lied duos. A graduate of the Norwegian Academy of Music, Melien has also studied in Berlin and has participated in the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

Dutch–Italian Cecilia Bernardini is widely considered to be one of the most versatile violinists of her generation, performing on both the modern and the baroque violin.

As a soloist, Cecilia has performed in many of Europe's most prestigious concert halls, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna and Konzerthaus Berlin, playing much of the main violin concerto repertoire, including the Bach violin concertos and double concertos, several Mozart concertos, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruch and Szymanowski. In 2010, she performed the violin solo part at the world première of Philip Glass's Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra with the Residentie Orkest.

Cecilia frequently leads and directs modern and period instrument ensembles including Ensemble Zefiro, Arcangelo with Jonathan Cohen, Pygmalion with Raphael Pichon, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto, Holland Baroque Society, The King’s Consort , Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Robin Ticciati, Camerata Salzburg, Bach Collegium Japan, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and The Netherlands Bach Society with Jos van Veldhoven.

With her great passion for chamber music, Cecilia is a member of the Serafino String Trio, joining violist Giles Francis and cellist Timora Rosler. She has a duo with fortepianist Keiko Shichijo (with whom she did an extensive tour at the Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival) and regularly performs with her father, baroque oboist Alfredo Bernardini. Past Chamber music partners include baroque violinist Stanley Ritchie, double-bass player Rick Stotijn, fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, pianist Alexandre Tharaud and cellist Colin Carr.

In 2012 Cecilia was appointed leader of the Dunedin Consort, based in Scotland, with whom she has recorded Bach's St. John Passion and a best-selling disc of the Brandenburg Concertos, which has been nominated for a Gramophone award at the same time as Mozart’s Requiem by the same group.

Cecilia plays on a 1743 Camillus Camilli violin kindly loaned by the Jumpstart Foundation.