Oslo Sinfonietta
Oslo Sinfonietta, Norway's oldest running contemporary ensemble, was established in 1986. The ensemble is under the leadership of Christian Eggen, who is both artistic director and chief conductor.
Oslo Sinfonietta comprises leading freelance musicians and members from some of Norway's most prominent orchestras, including The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, The Norwegian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and The Norwegian Radio Orchestra. This ensures that the ensemble has the quality and flexibility that modern repertoire demands.
The Sinfonietta does play older music, though. The repertoire includes 20th century classics like Mahler and Debussy, and should the programming demand it the Sinfonietta even plays Bach, though they insist to interpret the older music into a modernistic tradition.
A concert with Oslo Sinfonietta is not least characterised by a remarkable flow. “Classical music concerts are often haunted by the intermission between pieces” says artistic director Christian Eggen, who has worked with various ways of overcoming this, for instance by having musicians improvising music that connect the pieces programmed. Having worked with this philosophy for almost 20 years Oslo Sinfonietta is today proud to be an expert in the field of “thinking the whole concert as one work”.