This year's pianists at the summer recitals at Troldhaugen

June 11 - 16: Jørn Skauge

Jørn Skauge (b. 1988) is a renowned and award-winning pianist from Nordhordland. Skauge earned his master's degree from the Grieg Academy in Bergen under the guidance of Professor Audun Kayser. During his final master's concert in 2015, he played to the rare delight of the audience, with the examiner noting that the young pianist had delivered a concert of "absolute world-class."

Skauge is a versatile pianist who performs both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. In addition to his concert activities, Skauge works as a piano teacher and accompanist.

June 18 - 23: Idun Økland

Idun Gabrielle Fougner-Økland (b. 2002) is a pianist and student at the Norwegian Academy of Music under Håvard Gimse. Prior to this, she earned her Diplôme de Virtuosité from Schola Cantorum de Paris in 2021. She has performed at events such as the Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Ultima Festival, and Bergen International Festival, and has played concerts and competitions in various European countries. She has been a winner of the Panhellenic Piano Competition X.O.N. and a soloist with the Athens Sinfonietta Orchestra.

Growing up in England, Norway, and Greece has exposed her to different musical traditions and a life of many languages. This has fostered her fascination with the intersection of music, language, and text, making her especially fond of working with singers, both as a chamber musician and increasingly as a choir conductor.

Fougner-Økland is also an engaged student with a strong commitment to higher music education in Norway and has led the Norwegian Music Student Network since its inception in spring 2023.

June 25 - 30: Elisabeth Holmegaard Nielsen

Elisabeth Holmegaard Nielsen is one of Denmark's most promising young pianists. Immediately after completing her master's degree at 21 under the guidance of Professor Niklas Sivelöv at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with top grades, she was admitted to the soloist class in Denmark under Marianna Shirinyan and in Austria at the University of Music in Vienna under Professors Christopher Hinterhuber and Jan Jiracek von Arnim. Her debut concert took place on August 23, 2017, in DKDM's concert hall, with the jury stating: "The evening leaves the impression of a talented pianist and an exploratory musician, who has the courage, will, and ability to explore new interpretive possibilities. It will be exciting to follow Elisabeth Nielsen's further career and development."

July 2 - 7: Sigmund Skjeldrum Toppe

Sigmund Skjeldrum Toppe (b. 2000) is a pianist from Bergen studying for a master's degree in Oslo at the Norwegian Academy of Music under Professor Christopher Park, also undertaking an exchange at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague with Professor Slava Poprugin. He is a former student of Professors Håvard Gimse, Sveinung Bjelland, and Ingunn Ådland.

Toppe has participated as a festival musician at the Bergen International Festival, Gloppen Music Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, and frequently at the local cultural festival in his own district, Åsane. He is an active chamber musician and enjoys leading a chamber music series at the Academy of Music, now in its third year. Grieg has always been a central composer in his repertoire, and he looks forward to sharing his favorites with you!

July 9 - 14: Joachim Engeli

Joachim Engeli (b. 1999) is a classical pianist from Innlandet. In 2024, he completed his master's degree at the Norwegian Academy of Music under the guidance of, among others, Einar Henning Smebye and Håvard Gimse. Joachim regularly performs with ensembles ranging from duos to choirs but sees himself primarily as a solo pianist. He has won prizes at music competitions such as the Youth Music Championship, Midgard Competition, and Sparre Olsen Music Competition.

Joachim prefers playing large works that provide the audience with a strong and challenging musical experience. Much of his study time has been devoted to delving into many of the Norwegian composers like Edvard Grieg, Harald Sæverud, Geirr Tveitt, and David Monrad Johansen. He also has a fondness for distinctly rhythmic and percussive music, such as that by Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Béla Bartók.

July 16 - 21: Oda Voltersvik

Oda Voltersvik (b. 1990) is a classical pianist from Hordaland. She completed her master's degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Professor Ian Fountain. Voltersvik regularly performs both as a soloist and chamber musician. Her performances include solo recitals at the Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall) in New York, St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, and the Edvard Grieg Museum in Norway. She has been awarded several scholarships and prizes, including the Selmer Music Scholarship and the TICON Award.

Voltersvik is passionate about bringing classical music to a broader audience and often engages in outreach and educational projects. She is also involved in various recording projects, including solo piano music and chamber works.

July 23 - 28: Martha Berit Belt

Martha Berit Belt completed her master's degree at the Grieg Academy in 2016, after studying with Signe Bakke. During her master's studies, she specialized in the music of Olivier Messiaen. She has also taken lessons with Håvard Gimse and Julius Drake. Belt has a versatile performing career as a soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist. She has performed concerts at the Grieg-Begegnungsstätte in Leipzig and at the Nouvelle Scene Nationale in Cergy-Pontoise, France. In recent years, she has given numerous concerts at Troldhaugen, both as "pianist of the week" and in Grieg's villa. Belt is a pianist in the chamber group Ensemble Eon.

July 30 - August 4: Oskar Abel Valand Halvorsen

Oskar Abel Valand Halvorsen (b. 1998) is a pianist and composer from Oslo. He has studied with Christian Ihle Hadland and Håvard Gimse and has been a regular participant at the Jiri Hlinka Piano Academy in Bergen. In January 2023, he was a soloist in Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with a combined orchestra from Barratt Due Music Institute and the Norwegian Academy of Music, conducted by Tabita Berglund. He also has a passion for performing lesser-known repertoire of high quality, which has led to concerts featuring all of Wilhelm Stenhammar's piano works (including the two piano concertos arranged for two pianos) in one concert.

August 6 - 11: Tore Bordal

Tore Eide Bordal, born in 1992 in Trondheim and raised in Bergen, began playing the piano at the age of 18. In 2016, he completed his bachelor's degree in classical piano performance at the Grieg Academy with top marks in piano performance, where he also spent a year on exchange at the École Supérieure de Musique et Danse in Lille, France. In 2023, he completed his master's degree at the Grieg Academy, performing, among other pieces, nine preludes by Debussy and Grieg's Ballade in G minor at his master concert. Tore now works as a freelance musician with projects both in the Bergen area and internationally.

August 13 - 18: Kei Solvang

Kei Solvang (b. 2002) is a talented pianist born in Japan but residing in Norway since she was five years old. Admitted to the Grieg Academy's Young Talents (GUT) program in 2017 under the guidance of Signe Bakke, she also joined the Talent Program at the Jiri Hlinka Piano Academy in 2019, led by Leif Ove Andsnes, Håvard Gimse, and Christian Ihle Hadland until autumn 2022.

In 2018, Solvang won her class in the Youth Music Championship and opened NRK's "Grieg Minute by Minute." In the summer of 2023, she impressed with a concert together with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra during the Bergen International Festival, performing Anne-Marie Ørbeck's Piano Concerto Konzertino.

Solvang is currently in her third year of the bachelor's program at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Professor Jens Elvekjær as her main mentor.

August 20 - 25: Thormod Rønning Kvam

Thormod Rønning Kvam is establishing himself as a pianist in the young Scandinavian elite. Performances at London's Wigmore Hall, the Main Stage of the Norwegian Opera, Grünewald Hall in Stockholm Concert Hall, Harpa in Reykjavik, and as a festival pianist at the Gloger Festival and Hardanger Music Festival are some of the highlights from recent years. In 2023, he was appointed Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London – an honor given to musicians who "make a difference through their professional activities." He is the recipient of the Fegersten Work Scholarship for his upcoming debut album and recently received the prestigious Nils Larsen Scholarship for his international solo debut. Thormod is also strongly committed to renewing the classical music heritage – a work he does as the artistic director of the Aula Series, a chamber music initiative with concerts throughout the year in the university auditoriums in Oslo and Bergen and at the cultural destination Ramme in Hvitsten.

August 27 - September 1: Fabrice Vestad

Fabrice Bligoud Vestad is a young French-Norwegian pianist raised in Hamar. He has his background from the Cultural School, the Norwegian Academy of Music, and the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where he completed his higher studies and Artist Diploma in 2023. Fabrice is an active solo and chamber musician in Norway and abroad, with a particular fondness for the music of his compatriots, Ravel from France and Grieg from Norway. Fabrice is currently preparing the recording of Ravel's complete piano music, a project he is undertaking through the Elite Program at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, a mentorship program where he is guided by pianist Jean-Philippe Collard.

Fabrice resides in Paris but remains a city patriot for his hometown of Hamar. He is the founder and artistic director of the Hamar Chamber Music Festival, which had its first edition in February 2024.

September 3 - 8: Marina Matsuoka

Marina Matsuoka, born in Japan in 1998, began playing the piano at the age of three using the Suzuki method. She has distinguished herself in various fields, earning prizes, a diploma from the École Normale de Musique de Paris, and opportunities to perform a selection of piano concerts with orchestras. Matsuoka graduated from the Tokyo College of Music, where she studied with Katsunori Ishii and Seizo Azuma, and after completing her master's studies, she worked as an accompanist at the college. Since 2021, Matsuoka has been a member of the Grieg Society in Japan, and she is currently studying at the Grieg Academy in Bergen in the class led by Professor Signe Bakke.

September 10 - 15: Martim Almeida

Martim Almeida is currently studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music under the guidance of Håvard Gimse, after previously receiving musical training from renowned pianists such as Luiz de Moura Castro, Artur Pizarro, and Kathryn Stott. He has performed at prominent concert halls in Portugal, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, and the USA, both as a soloist and chamber musician. Martim made his orchestral debut in 2015 with the Orquestra Clássica do Centro in Portugal and has since recorded music for associations like Dextra Music and the Portuguese classical radio station Antena 2. Martim has also received instruction from notable pianists such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Einar Steen-Nøkleberg, Christopher Park, and Paul Badura-Skoda.