Erlend Apneseth Trio, the BIT20 Ensemble, conductor Bjarni Frímann, and producer Bergur Þórisson have been in the studio recording the full-length work Terra Incognita. The piece combines contemporary music, free improvisation, and folk music, and is a collaboration between Erlend Apneseth and Ørjan Matre. It was premiered at the Ultima Festival in Oslo in 2024. Read more about the work here.
Freude is premiered at the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s season opening concert, conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend. The work marks the beginning of Ørjan Matre’s two-year residency as the orchestra’s composer.
I have chosen to use the same orchestration as Beethoven – but without the vocal soloists. Whereas Beethoven set the entire text of Schiller’s ode to joy, human fellowship, and freedom, I use only the first word: Freude. The piece was written during a time marked by unrest and uncertainty. My Freude is therefore not a cry of jubilation, but a distant and open question. The wind and brass instruments play a single, unsettling chord – the fate-laden opening of Beethoven’s fourth movement.
Ørjan Matre is the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s composer-in-residence from 2025 to 2027. Over the course of two seasons, both the orchestra and its audiences will have ample opportunity to engage with his music. In the 2025/26 season alone, his works will be featured in nine concerts across six different productions.
More information here.
Photo: Sunniva Øiestad
Ørjan Matre is a composer with a clear voice in the present. For us, this two-year collaboration is not only about a sincere desire to present more of his music to the public, but also about a curiosity about what such a “voice in the present” could actually be. (Sigurd Sverdrup Sandmo – Managing Director of Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra)
A live video from Sverre Riise and The Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra’s premiere of “…I have said this before…” is now available. The piece is based on “… but I must have said this before …” for trombone and ensemble, originally commissioned by Ensemble Ernst in 2010. The orchestral version is significantly expanded, featuring not only an enlarged instrumentation but also new material.
A video for Minnesota Orchestra’s performance of Lyric Pieces, conducted by Thomas Søndergård.
A new Piano Concerto is in the making. Commissioned by Leif Ove Andsnes, the piece will premiere in February 2026 with the Oslo Philharmonic and conductor Thomas Søndergård, followed by performances with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
The project Our House has been nominated for the 2024 “Work of the Year” award by The Norwegian Society of Composers. A total of 20 works by Norwegian composers have been selected. Here’s a throwback to that unforgettable day in our borettslag:
Terra Incognita will be premiered at Riksscenen in Oslo during the Ultima Festival 2024. The piece is the latest in a series of collaborations between the innovative Hardanger fiddle player Erlend Apneseth and Ørjan Matre. This piece explores the intersection of tradition and innovation. Apneseth’s ensemble, the Erlend Apneseth Trio—comprising Erlend Apneseth, Stephan Meidell, and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde—blends Norwegian folk music, jazz, and electronica.
March 2nd 2024, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Emilia Hoving will perform Lyric Pieces. This pieces was originally scored for orchestra and premiered by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edvard Gardner in 2019. For the concert in Helsingborg, a completely new version has been made that also includes Christian Ihle Hadland on solo piano in several of the movements.
Photo: Nikolaj Lund
A recording of Six Orphic Amulets has just been released! The pieces is performed by NoXaS Saxophone Quartet and Nordic Voices. The recording also contains music by Jon Øivind Ness and Karen Rehnqvist.
Six Orphic Amulets was commissioned by NoXaS and Nordic Voices, and premiered at Bergen International Festival in June 2018.
(Post in Norwegian)
På platen “Rosa fra Betlehem” synger Sondre Bratland sangen Joli kjem. Sangen er opprinnelig en palestinsk folketone, og Erik Hillestad har skrevet den sterke og viktige teksten. Jeg har laget et firstemmig arrangement som passer for kor på alle nivå. Arrangementet kan lastes gratis ned her (trykk på bildet for pdf):
Partitur og lyd (liveopptak fra Bergen Domkirke, 22.11.23, Bergen Domkor, dirigent: Kjetil Almenning)
JOLI KJEM
Joli kjem når blomar gror
opp frå krigens brende jord.
Joli kjem som mogen frukt
når me jagar hat på flukt.
Joli kjem som tre or frø
når me deler vatn og brød.
Då i fredens kvite natt
høyrer hyrding songen att.Joli kjem når blomar gror
opp frå krigens brende jord.
Joli kjem som mogen frukt
når me jagar hat på flukt.
Joli gjer ein ørken grøn
når me byter hemn med bøn.
Då når kjærleikstankar kjem
syng dei over Betlehem.Joli kjem når blomar gror
opp frå krigens brende jord.
Joli kjem som mogen frukt
når me jagar hat på flukt.
Joli kjem som busk frå grus
når me deler land og hus.
Når me tek ein bror i famn
lovsyng englar Jesu namn.
24th of November Lyric Pieces II will be premiered at Edvard Grieg’s home Troldhaugen by Bergen String Quartet and Ellena Hale (piano). The pieceis scored for string quartet, piano, electronics, 15 metronomes, and a gramophone player playing a 78 RPM record. The work is a kind of continuation Lyric Pieces for orchestra (2019). Some of the Lyric Pieces from the orchestral piece have been revisited, but in a completely new setting.
The electronics are based on Edvard Grieg’s recordings from 1903/1906 of some of his Lyric Pieces and field recordings from Torshov in Oslo and Fløen in Bergen.
Kode has released a short documentary from the happening in Fløenbakken in August. The video is produced by Better Call Paul.
Photo: Frode Boris Bakken
The concert performance “Our house” was premiered August 26th in Fløenbakken boliglag. The performance consisted of concerts inside and outside in Ørjan Matre’s neighbourhood, in Ørjan and his neighbours’ flats and in their shared garden. The project became a reflection on community and cooperation, and received a lot of attention in the media.
Musicians:
Martha Berit Belt, piano
Erlend Apneseth, hardanger fiddle
Jostein Stalheim, accordion
Halvor F. Melien, bariton
Knut Christian Jansson, fortepiano
Krohnengen Brass Band
Hellen og Eidsvåg School Band
Fredrik Schjelderup, conductor
Bergen String Quartet (as part of the sound installation “Strykefritt”)
Bergen Domkor (conductor: Kjetil Almenning)
New concert added to calendar: “Our house” – a concert performance
Kode has visited my home. We talked about music, living in a housing co-operative, about trains and running. In August there will be a concert in a proper composer’s home – we will turn Fløenbakken upside down and invite you to the concert performance “Our House”.
Stay tuned!
Photo: Anette Basso
Ørjan Matre is KODE´s (Art Museums of Bergen) 2023 composer in residence.
Each year a new composer is chosen to take on this role. During the year, the resident composer has the opportunity to curate concerts, lectures and content in social media, in addition to composing a brand new work which is performed towards the end of the term.
Each composer has their own twist on how they want to shape their time at Kode. In the past, Wolfgang Plagge and Rebecka Sofia Ahvenniemi have held the role as KODE´s composer in residence.
Matre will present several different projects and concerts throughout the year, and is also developing a project that revolves around his own composer’s home.
Read KODE´s presentation of Ørjan Matre here.
In February, Ragnhild Hemsing (Hardanger fiddle), Marja Mortensson (joik) and Trondheimsolistene premiere the new work “Gaavnedien”. They perform it for the first time in the Grieg Hall in Bergen, and repeat the concert in Trøndelag and at Hemsing’s own festival, Hemsingfestivalen
in Valdres.
“Gaavnedien” (Sami for “We meet”) combines two traditional joiks, “Galkije johke” (running water) and “Gaavalahke” (the one chosen to lead the reindeer herd) with “Huldrelått”, a lyar song from Vang i Valdres.
The digital magazine “Kontekst” spoke to Ørjan Matre about writing music with a brush and 10H pencil, about musician psychology, and about banging your head against the wall until music emerges.
Read full interview (in Norwegian) here.
Bergen Philharmonic has uploaded the video from their performance of Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, performed by Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen and conducted by Ludovic Morlot. Due to Covid regulations, the concert was held with no audience, but a recording is now published on bergenphilive.no.
Ørjan Matre: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra from Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on Vimeo.
Ørjan Matre was rewarded The Norwegians receives The Norwegian Publisher Price “Classical/contemporary Composer of the year”.
Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra is nominated for the Norwegian Publisher Price, in the category “Contemporary work of the year”. Ørjan Matre is also nominated as “Classical/contemporary Composer of the year”. The price winners will be announced on April 6, 2022. Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra is published by Edition Peters and was commissioned by Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen.
Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra will be “premiered” by Hans-Christian Kjos Sørensen, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Conductor: Ludovic Morlot) January 13th under strange circumstances. Due to Covid regulations, the concert is unfortunately cancelled, but a recording will be made and published on bergenphilive.no later this year.
Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen, Percussion
Four pieces from a distance has been nominated by The Norwegian Society of Composers for the 2021 “Work of the year” award. 20 pieces by Norwegian composer have been nominated. Four pieces from a distance was commissioned by The Norwegian Organ Festival and NyNorsk Messingkvintett and premiered at by NyNorsk Messingkvintett and Anders Eidsten Dahl at The Norwegian Organ Festival in 2020. The piece has since then had several performances and will be recorded together with Oslo Chamber Choir in a new version that includes choir during spring 2022.
Kildeskrift is a piece composed in close collaboration with the innovative folk music (hardanger) fiddle player Erlend Apneseth. The piece is partly based on his musical ideas and sound world and partly based on old field recordings from Nordfjord in the western part of Norway. Kildeskrift will be premiered September 9th by Erlend Apneseth and The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra led by Terje Tønnesen at Gloppen Musikkfest.
Photo: Peter Purgar
The Norwegian National Youth Orchestra conducted by Johannes Gustavsson will give four performances of a new orchestral piece, Syklus (click link for more information).
In the spring of 2021, after more than a year of COVID restrictions, I felt the need to write music with a sense of flight, something light and not too heavy and serious. I simply ended up writing bicycle music. The inspiration comes from an actual bike ride I had with my family (wife and two children), the first real ride after long periods of lockdown, home schooling and quarantines. The speed of the bikes and the wind whistling around us gave a strong sensation of freedom. We also discovered that our four bicycle bells were tuned in a sore and beautiful minor chord. I have tried to transfer some of the feeling of speed and the slightly nostalgic sound of bicycle bells to the orchestra: The harmonies are based on the bicycle bells and the melody of a phrase that kept spinning in my head while we rode. Four of the musicians play the exact bicycle bells we used on our trip, and a percussionist also uses a bicycle as a percussion instrument.
TERJUNGENSEMBLE and folk singer Ingebjørn Logvik Reinholdt have recorded Tre sanger etter Ragnar Vigdal “Three songs after Ragnar Vigdal” alongside music by Agnes Ida Pettersen and Herman Vogt.
For the past fifteen years, as well as writing my own compositions, I have worked on reworking Norwegian folk music. Many of the reworkings have occupied the borderland between compositions and arrangements, and they have always reflected a desire to add something new to the original music at the same time as retaining some of its unique character. I was introduced to the three songs after Ragnar Vigdal (1913-1990) by the folk singer Unni Løvlid. Vigdal grew up near the inner part of Sognefjorden, in an atmosphere of Christian pietism. At house church meetings, he learned to sing hundreds of religious folk songs, richly embellished with ornaments and rich harmonies. In order to maintain the characteristic freedom of Vigdal’s musical tradition, I have written a piece where there is not much precise coordination between the soloist and the ensemble: Ingebjørg Lognvik Reinholdt is able to sing her own highly personal versions of the songs over three virtually independent movements for strings.
Buy the digital album at Bandcamp.
The accordion player Frode Haltli has been productive during the Covid lockdown. He has recorded no more than three solo accordion albums. In his own words:
In May 2020 I started a recording project. The idea was to use this open calendar period to freshen up, rehearse and tape some not often heard solo pieces, most of them never recorded before. After a couple weeks of preparing, I got the key to our local church, set up a stereo pair of Neumann microphones, and started recording. On this third volume I have recorded three standout pieces which I have performed frequently at solo concerts the last decade or two.
The third volume contains my accordion piece “Nephilim Song”, commissioned by and premiered at Wittener Tage for neue Kammermusik back in 2012. Nephilim Song is published by Edition Peters.
Two brand new pieces will be premiered during the Ultima Contemporary Music Festival 2020. On the opening concert, The Norwegian Soloists’ Choir conducted by Grete Pedersen will together with Tine Thing Helseth on trumpet premiere Trompeten, Nachts und Untergang, a piece based on three poems by Georg Trakl (1887-1914). TERJUNGENSEMBLE and the Norwegian folk singer Ingebjørg Lognvik Reinholdt will later perform Tre sanger etter Ragnar Vigdal, based on original material from the Norwegian folk singer Ragnar Vigdal (1913-1991).
Photographer: norden.org
Ørjan Matre is nominated for the 2020 Nordic Council Music Prize for the orchestral work Lyric Pieces (2019).
The jury’s rationale:
The work plays creatively on Grieg’s simple melodic lines, offering surprising and fresh twists. The orchestral sounds are rich and brilliant, while fragments of the old pieces burst through and insist on their timelessness. Yet this is by no means an orchestration of Grieg. Matre regards Grieg as a peripheral memory – something abstract yet near and dear. Respectful and approached with love.
Lyriske stykker is pleasing to the ear and is a beautiful universe that, by way of detours through Hollywood, Disney, and the contemporary, makes both modern orchestral music and the classical legacy relevant to more listeners. This is elegant and stylish music in which Matre clearly shines through, with fleeting visits from Grieg.
Read about the nomination and the other nominees here:
In November 2019, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Edward Gardner premiered Lyric Pieces, based on six of Edvard Grieg’s iconic piano pieces (see the performance here). On June 15 2020, their first concert after COVID-19 with an actual audience in the hall, they will perform it again, this time with Leif Ove Andsnes at the piano. They have also commissioned an extra movement, Notturno, based on Grieg’s Notturno from his Op. 54.
New artist page on Facebook! Follow here:
The Edvard Grieg International Piano Competition 2020 has commissioned a short piano solo work to be included in the competition. Notturno, a 4 minute piece which vaguely points towards Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Piece with the same name, can until April 20 be dowloaded on the following page: Edvard Grieg Competition – Repertoire.
Lyric Pieces is nominated for the Norwegian Publisher Price 2020, in the category “Contemporary work of the year”. Ørjan Matre is also nominated as “Classical/Contemporary Composer of the year”. The price winners will be announced on February 26, 2020. Lyric Pieces is published by Edition Peters and was premiered in November 2019 by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner.
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra has published the video from their performance of Lyric Pieces, conducted by Edward Gardner. From Grieghallen, Bergen, November 14, 2019.
Lyric Pieces will be premiered by Bergen Philharmonic Orhcestra and Edward Gardner on November 14 in the Grieg Hall, Bergen. The piece is based on six of Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Pieces; Arietta, Spring Dance, Solitary Traveller, Butterfly, Bell Ringing and Remembrances. It is not a conventional orchestration of the piano pieces, rather composed interpretations inspired by Grieg’s harmonic and rythmic ideas. Grieg himself is piano soloist in the last movement, in a recording from 1903.
Score and info about the piece: Lyric Pieces
A new version of the harp concerto “…yet from those flames no light…” is performed on November 3rd in Bergen Domkirke. The piece was premiered in 2015 by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner and harp soloist Johannes Wik. The orchestra and the soloist are the same for this performance, but the piece now also includes choir (Bergen Domkor) and organ (Sigurd Melvær Øgaard).
The stage setup will be quite spectacular, with the orchestra distributed throughout the church, completely surrounding the audience.
Score and info about the piece here: “…yet from those flames no light…”
Oslo Chamber Choir and their conductor Håkon Daniel Nystedt have recorded a selection of Ørjan Matre’s Norwegian folk song arrangements. The recording is published by 2L.
Hild Borchgrevink has written a brilliant booklet text for the Konsert for orkester-recording. Read it here: A concert as a landscape.
Norwegian Radio broadcasted this radio portrait (in Norwegian) of Ørjan Matre after the Norwegian Grammy Award.
The recording of Konsert for orkester, performed by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Peter Herresthal (violin), conducted by Peter Szilvay, picked up two Norwegian Grammys during the Norwegian Grammy Award (Spellemannsprisen), in the categories Best Contemporary Album, and TONOs Composer Price.
Info and Hild Borchgrevink’s text about the piece: Konsert for orkester
Ørjan Matre’s Different Stories receives the Norwegian Publisher Price as the contemporary work of the year. The piece is published by Editon Peters. 
Bergen Philharmonic has uploaded the video from their performance of Different Stories, conducted by Edward Gardner. From Grieghallen, Bergen, September 6, 2018.
 
Ørjan Matre: Different Stories from Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on Vimeo.
[vimeo 315193695 w=640 h=360]
The recording of Konsert for Orkester, brilliantly performed by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Peter Herresthal, conducted by Peter Szilvay is nominated for a Norwegian Grammy. Ørjan Matre is also nominated for the TONOs Composer Award.
Konsert for orkester is published by Lawo.
Buy it here: Konsert for orkester
Stream it here: Konsert for orkester
Musikkforleggerprisen 2019
Different Stories is nominated for the Norwegian Publisher Price, in the category “Contemporary work of the year”. Ørjan Matre is also nominated as “Classical/contemporary Composer of the year”. The price winners will be announced on February 27, 2019. Different Stories is published by Edition Peters.
Vårt Land has reviewed Oslo Philharmonic Orchestras CD Konsert for Orkester, and they like what they hear.
With its fantastic sound world, the Concert for Orchestra can be seen as a celebration of the concert experience – or it can ask whether the concert experience can beat the depth and sound nuances I get at the listening experience from the first row in my own living room.
Ørjan Matre music will in the future be published by Edition Peters. A selection of older pieces will be published as well.
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