Norwegian Baroque Orchestra

Norwegian Baroque Orchestra

The Orchestra has collaborated widely with a number of conductors - most notably the Norwegian harpsichordist Ketil Haugsand and the British conductor Andrew Parrott. In 2005 the Norwegian conductor Rolf Gupta was announced as artistic leader.

The NBO has appeared at a number of prestigious venues and festivals, including Salle Pleyel in Paris, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Ansbacher Bachwoche, Festival Internacional de Musica de Coimbra, Festival International de Musique Baroque & Classique du Beaune, Luzerner Musikfest-Wochen, Europäischen Musikfest Stuttgart, Tage Alte Musik Regensburg, Schleswig Holstein Festival and Musikfest Bremen as well as a number of Norwegian festivals.

Ketil Haugsand

The harpsichordist Ketil Haugsand is one of Norway's most outstanding performers of early music. He first appeared on the international scene with major prizes in Paris in 1979 and Amsterdam the following year. Specialising in French and German baroque repertory, he has toured as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral director throughout Europe and America. He was professor of Early Music at the Norwegian State Academy and from 1994 has been harpsichord professor at the Musikhochschule in Cologne.

Ketil Haugsand has been closely associated with the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra since its foundation in 1988 as the first independent, professional orchestra performing on period instruments in Scandinavia. The orchestra has also toured extensively with Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort and Choir and has visited many of the major European festivals, including Lucerne, Stuttgart, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen, Regensburg, Köthen and Bergen. It has also performed in Frankfurt, Paris and Beaune, in Portugal, and in many cities in Norway and Sweden as well as having a regular concert series in Oslo. The Frankfurter Allgemeine has described the orchestra as playing with ‘a thrillingly homogenous transparency and colour'.