VERTAVO STRING QUARTET ØYVOR VOLLE — VIOLIN BERIT CARDAS — VIOLIN HENNINGE LANDAAS — VIOLA BJØRG LEWIS — CELLO The Vertavo Quartet is recognized internationally as one of the most exciting and experienced string quartets of our time. Since their founding in Norway in 1984, their masterly performances and unique sound have enchanted audiences wherever they have played.
The Vertavo Quartet performs at all of the most important concert venues in the world. They tour throughout Europe, Scandinavia and the United States and are invited to such chamber music venues as Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Carnegie Hall in New York. The past concert season included appearances in the United States, Germany, the Czech Republic and Israel.
In addition to distinguishing themselves in the classical core repertoire for string quartet, Vertavo also has a great ability to interpret contemporary music – a skill that has led to memorable performances of works by Ligeti, Adès, Widmann, Gabriela Frank and many contemporary Nordic composers. Recently they gave the critically acclaimed first performances of Poul Ruders’ last string quartet in London’s Barbican Hall and at the Aldeburgh Festival.
Vertavo has collaborated with many of the world’s most outstanding artists including Leif Ove Andsnes, Håkan Hardenberger, Martin Fröst, Isabelle van Keulen and Lawrence Power. Recently they completed a widely acclaimed tour as a quintet in collaboration with the well-known British pianist Paul Lewis, performing also in this configuration at the opening of The Proms chamber music season in 2016.
Vertavo’s recordings include works by Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Grieg, Debussy, Bartok, Nielsen and Asheim. They have also recorded Mozart’s clarinet quintet with Martin Fröst. Their recordings of Debussy and Grieg earned them Diapason d’Or awards. In June of 2005, the Quartet received the Grieg prize – the most important cultural prize in Norway, one that is awarded only to artists of the highest international reputation. Exactly 10 years earlier, in 1995, they won first prize at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, where they also received both the audience prize and the critics’ prize.
Vertavo established its own international chamber music festival – The Vertavo Festival – in Norway in September, 2016. In autumn 2019, Vertavo celebrated its 35-year Jubilee with a marathon concert at Sentralen – a large center for the arts in downtown Oslo – where, in collaboration with some of their good musical friends, they performed all 68 of Haydn’s string quartets in 24 hours.

Björn Nyman is one of the leading clarinetists of his generation in the Nordic region and a sought-after chamber musician and soloist. He is principal clarinetist with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra.
Nyman was a prizewinner in two of the most prestigious international competitions for clarinetists: the ARD Competition in Munich in 2003 and the Carl Nielsen competition in Odense in 2005. In both competitions he was also awarded the prize for best interpretation of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. Nyman won shared first prize at the International Crusell Clarinet Competition in 2002 as well as the ConocoPhillipps Prize the same year.
Björn Nyman has been a soloist with several orchestras including the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.
Nyman is an active chamber musician and has played in many of the leading festivals in Scandinavia. At the age of 19 he was appointed his first position as principal clarinetist with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra. He has also been principal clarinetist in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra under conductors such as Pierre Boulez and Claudio Abbado. He has studied with Hans Christian Bræin and Leif Arne Pedersen at the Norwegian Academy of Music where he teaches today, as well as with Yehuda Gilad of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The award-winning pianist Sveinung Bjelland from Stavanger studied with Professor Hans Leygraf at the University of Music and Dramatic Arts (Mozarteum) in Salzburg and at the Berlin University of the Arts, from which he graduated with highest honors. In 1999 he was the recipient of Concerts Norway’s “Young Soloist of the Year” award. In the international press he is described as an outstanding lieder pianist. He is Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the University of Agder. Bjelland can look back on an extensive career as soloist, on international concert stages as well as on numerous recordings. His album of sonatas of Scarlatti and Mendelssohn is testimony to his exquisite sense of style and sound. His previous release on the LAWO Classics label, "Rachmaninoff/Shostakovich: Cello Sonatas" (LWC1131) with cellist Audun Sandvik, received glowing reviews in Norway and abroad.