Sveinung Bjelland (born 1970) is a Norwegian classical pianist who made an international career as a soloist and

Lied In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...

er accompanist. He is also an academic teacher.

Career

Born in

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

, Bjelland studied piano with

Hans Leygraf Hans Leygraf (7 September 1920 – 12 February 2011) was a Swedish pianist, music educator, conductor and composer. Life Born in Stockholm, Leygraf studied piano with in Stockholm and Anna Hirzel-Langenhan in Switzerland. He was one of Sweden ...

at the

Mozarteum Mozarteum University Salzburg (German: ''Universität Mozarteum Salzburg'') is one of three affiliated but separate (it is actually a state university) entities under the “Mozarteum” moniker in Salzburg municipality; the International Moz ...

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

and at the

Hochschule der Künste The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

in Berlin, where he completed his studies with distinction. In 1999, he was called "Young Soloist of the Year" by the

Concerts Norway Concerts Norway ( no, Rikskonsertene) was established in 1967 on the initiative of the Arts Council Norway ( no, Norsk kulturråd), with its main purpose described as follows: "Concerts Norway is to make living music of high artistic quality acces ...

. Bjelland has collaborated with notable orchestras and conductors. He accompanied the Norwegian singer in several

er recordings. His recording of piano sonatas by

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

and Scarlatti was nominated for the award

Spellemannprisen Spellemannprisen, often referred to as the Norwegian Grammy Awards in English, is a Norwegian music award presented to Norwegian musicians. The award was established by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organizati ...

. In 2005, a CD was released with music for clarinet and piano, played by clarinetist

Fredrik Fors Fredrik Fors (born 1973, Borlänge) is a Swedish, classical music clarinetist.Booklet accompanying the Harmonia Mundi CD HMN911853. His album in the Juventus ''Les Nouveaux Musiciens'' series has been described as "one of the finest recitals of i ...

and him, including Poulenc's

Clarinet Sonata A clarinet sonata is piece of music in sonata form for clarinet, often with piano accompaniment. The Clarinet Sonatas by Brahms are of special significance in the development of the clarinet repertoire. Several important transcriptions are also p ...

, Martinu's Clarinet Sonatina and music by Busoni, Debussy and Alban Berg. Bjelland made his debut at London's

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadin ...

in October 2008. In collaboration with tenor

Daniel Behle Daniel Behle (born 1974) is a German classical composer and operatic tenor. He has performed at international opera houses and festivals, and has recorded both operas and '' Lieder'' recitals. Career Born in Hamburg, Behle studied music pedago ...

, he has released a recording of Schubert's ''

Die schöne Müllerin ' (,"The Fair Maid of the Mill", Op. 25, D. 795), is a song cycle by Franz Schubert from 1823 based on 20 poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the first of Schubert's two seminal cycles (preceding ''Winterreise'')'','' and a pinnacle of ''Lied'' re ...

'' in 2010, and of Schumann's ''

Dichterliebe ''Dichterliebe'', "A Poet's Love" (composed 1840), is the best-known song cycle by Robert Schumann (Opus number, Op. 48). The texts for the 16 songs come from the ''Lyrisches Intermezzo'' by Heinrich Heine, written in 1822–23 and published as pa ...

'' in 2011. On 1 July 2014, Bjelland was appointed professor of piano at the

University of Agder The University of Agder ( no, Universitetet i Agder), formerly known as Agder College and Agder University College, is a public university with campuses in Kristiansand and Grimstad, Norway. The institution was established as a university co ...

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a seaside resort city and municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 112,000 as of January 2020, following the incorporation ...

References

External links

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Sveinung Bjelland
BBC
Sveinung Bjelland
nmh.no {{DEFAULTSORT:Bjelland, Sveinung Norwegian classical pianists 1970 births Living people Musicians from Stavanger Academic staff of the University of Agder 21st-century classical pianists