<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%> Njål Sparbo - CV

 

 

 

Njål Sparbo

Njål Sparbo is one of Norway’s most active and versatile singers, with an exceptionally broad repertoire of song, oratorio and opera, and he is currently engaged as associate professor at the University in Bergen.

He has had more than 150 Lieder recitals together with Norway's leading pianists. His recordings of "Grieg & Schubert: Songs", and Schubert’s "Winterreise", have been highly praised, and the first two volumes of a CD-anthology of Norwegian songs has been released: ”Norge, mitt Norge!" and "Natt og Dag”. The third recording in the series will be released in December 2023, containing songs by 19 Norwegain contemporary composers.

In 1997-99 and 2005-08 he received The Norwegian Government Grant for Artists in to work with the art song tradition. He has been awarded the Kirsten Flagstad Prize, the Ingrid Bjoner Prize, and in 2009 he received the Grieg Prize for his contribution to renew the musical interpretation tradition of Grieg’s songs by bringing forth the dramatical essence after performances all of Edvard Grieg’s 172 songs in a series of 7 concerts in Bergen in conjunction with Grieg's 100th year commemoration.

Njål Sparbo is a merited oratorio singer with more than 50 major oratorios on his repertoire, and he has sung leading parts in numerous opera productions. He is an advocate of contemporary music and has sung numerous world premiere performances of Norwegian composers, including 11 contemporary opera productions.

In 2009-2014 Sparbo worked as a research fellow at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in The Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme with the project «Singing on the stage - with a psychophysical approach.» He has continued as a researcher of psychophysical stage presence, combining contemporary aesthetics with the tradition of Norwegian Psychomotor Therapy, and has had engagements as associate professor at the Academy of Opera and the Academy of Ballet at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

In 2014-15 he joined the research group «The Reflective Musician - Interpretation as Co-Creative Process» at the National Academy of Music in Oslo, and continued 2017-2020 with a research project at the University in Bergen “(Un-) settling Sites and Styles - in Search of New Expressive Means”. Sparbo teaches singing and psychophysical presence to many performing artists, holds lectures, master classes and seminars, and is a sought-after singing teacher, also for choirs and ensembles.

In the period 2020-2021, he studied choral conducting at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and is currently the artistic director and conductor of the Norwegain chamber choir "Viken Vokal".

He performs regularly at festivals and on television and radio, and he has participated in 33 CD recordings. His solo engagements include all the major Norwegian choirs and orchestras and The Norwegian National Opera. In various contexts he has performed in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Among his performances abroad are Mahler’s ”Lieder eines fahrendes Gesellen” with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in London (England), Bach’s ”Christmas Oratorio” with the Drotningholm's Baroque Orchestra in Uppsala (Sweden) and Rossini’s ”Petite Messe Sollenelle” in Köln Philharmonie (Germany), Kverno's "St. Matthew passion" in New York (USA), Saul in Handel's "Saul" at the London Handel Festival (England), and Paul in Mendelssohns "St. Paul" in Seoul (South Korea).