Arne Nordheim’s Composer’s Prize

The award will be handed over during Ultima Festival’s closing concert at Kulturkirken Jakob, Oslo, on 19 September 2020. Several works composed by the winner will be performed by Tøyen Fil og Klafferi and BIT20 Ensemble, conducted by Halldis Rønning. 

'Arne Nordheim’s Composer’s Prize is awarded to our most innovative composers – distinctive composers who challenge our preconceptions about what music can be. It’s a huge honour to be able to give this prize to Kristine Tjøgersen,' says Abid Raja, Minister for Culture and Equality, who will be presenting the award during the concert.

Kristine Tjøgersen has distinguished herself on the contemporary music scene as a composer with a particular interest in the combination of the visual and the aural and the ways in which they affect each other. She also plays clarinet in the Spellemann Prize-winning new music ensembles asamisimasa and Ensemble neoN, as well as Tøyen Fil og Klafferi.
She has an MA in composition from Anton Brucker University in Linz, Austrian, and an MA in clarinet from the Norwegian Academy of Music. In 2018 she represented Norway in Rostrum for Composers in Hungary, and in 2019 she was a fellow of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.

Quote from the jury’s statement on the winner:
‘Kristine Tjøgersen’s compositional practice is characterised by a unique sense of curiosity, the fantastical, humour, and precision. Her works are full of unexpected aural situations in a surprising dialogue with expectations and tradition, which occasionally leads to a fascinating ’strangeness’. She sees the world as composed, alive and in a state of change, not heading towards a final climax. The jury have been tremendously excited by her combination of jouissance and thoroughness which gives a rare freshness and originality.’

The Nordheim Prize:
Arne Nordheim’s Composer’s Prize was initiated by the Department of Culture in 2001 on the occasion of the composer’s 70th birthday. The prize is given out every other year during the Ultima Festival. The prizewinner will receive 200.000 NOK and a diploma.

The jury for 2020-24 consists of cellist Tanya Oring (jury leader), composer Trond Reinholdtsen and composer Sven Lyder Kahrs.

Previous winners:
2018 Lene Grenager
2016 Alfred Janson
2014 Magne Hegdal
2012 Øyvind Torvund
2011 Trond Reinholdtsen
2010 Ruben Sverre Gjertsen
2009 Magnar Åm
2008 Ragnhild Berstad
2007 Nils Henrik Asheim
2006 Ole-Henrik Moe
2005 Sven Lyder Kahrs
2004 Cecilie Ore
2003 Lars Petter Hagen
2002 Kåre Kolberg
2001 Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje

(Photo: Wolf james Photography)