CLARE FARR has been Principal Bass Trombone of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra since 2013. After bachelor studies in Stavanger and Manchester, she graduated with a master’s degree from the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2001. In her subsequent years as a freelance musician she held long-term positions with the Oslo Philharmonic and Norrköping Symphony Orchestras, and regularly worked with many Norwegian and European orchestras and ensembles. Clare is active as a conductor, teacher and adjudicator in the Norwegian brass and wind band community and teaches at the Barratt Due Music Academy.

SVERRE RIISE studied with Professor Ingemar Roos at the Norwegian Academy of Music and graduated in 1996 with the highest honours. His previous jobs include Principal Trombone of the Norwegian Opera Orchestra and Co-Principal of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Sverre is currently Principal Trombone of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. He has performed as a soloist with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Sinfonietta and Ensemble Ernst on several occasions and released his solo album “Snarks in the Kitchen” in 2015. Sverre is Associate Professor of Trombone at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

Harpist Sidsel Walstad describes playing Ginastera’s harp concerto as “climbing a mountain.” Whether it feels like that for most harpists, Walstad has the best qualifications for tackling Ginastera’s demanding rhythms and complexity. As solo harpist in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra she is exposed to a wide variaty of genres, compositions and arrangements that take the harp far from classical music’s beaten path.
Sidsel also does this of her own accord, as, for example, when she collaborates on electric harp with percussionists, expanding her repertoire and the boundaries of what a harp is good for.
Just as Walstad is in frequent demand as a classical musician in concerts and at festivals in Norway and abroad, the list of artists she has worked with in pop, jazz and folk music, among others, is strikingly long — and she is likewise a groovy principal artist with her electric harp over her shoulder.
Walstad studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music, the University of Indiana, and at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. She was Principal Harp with the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet Orchestra before she accepted the much sought-after soloist position with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK), with which she performs a broad stylistic palette. In her continuing encounters with new composers and arrangers, she shares invaluable knowledge of how a harp can be used and ought to sound.
In the harp concerto she comes face to face with her own personality, delighting in the contrasts and especially the rhythmic quality — the dance. And it doesn’t hurt to have danced ballet when playing a malambo …

PETTER WINROTH studied with Professor Ingemar Roos at the Gothenburg Music Academy and graduated in 2004. He won the position of Co-Principal Trombone of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra the same year. Since then he has worked almost continuously in the orchestra with only two interruptions, as Principal Trombone of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Petter is also an exceptional arranger and writes regularly for ensembles and orchestras of all sizes.

Inger-Lise Ulsrud is Professor of Organ and Organ Improvisation at the Norwegian Acad­emy of Music, and organist at Uranienborg Church in Oslo. In addition to her extensive concert engagements in Russia and through­out Europe, she offers regular master classes in Norway and abroad. She has contributed to a number of recordings, and her solo album releases include Meditatio, two organ cycles of Kjell Mørk Karlsen, and Olivier Messiaen: Early Organ Works. She has collaborated with KSS on a number of occasions, including at the choir’s annual Christmas concerts, and on the Brahms release in 2013.
Ulsrud was a member of the Chorale Book Committee in connection with the publication of the Norwegian Hymnal in 2013. She has been a board member of the Oslo International Church Music Festival, a jury member at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, for the Oslo Organ Festival, and at other international organ competitions. For a number of years she has been head of the Department of Church Music at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Her instruction book on organ improvisation, En improvisators betroelser, was published by Cantando Musikkforlag in the autumn of 2018.

The Norwegian Trombone Ensemble (track 5) was formed in 2014 and consists of Audun Breen, Sverre Riise, Petter Winroth and Clare Farr. The four performers have extensive experience as soloists and chamber musicians and are some of Norway’s most outstanding trombonists. Their highly acclaimed debut album Nibbles (LWC1194) was released in 2020.

Sigstein Folgerø is Associate Professor of Accompaniment at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He is also an active freelance orchestral and ensemble musician. As a soloist he enjoys seeking out hidden gems in the piano literature, with a particular emphasis on transcriptions.