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Research group for performance and interpretation - GAFFI

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What is GAFONOM?

The Grieg Academy’s research group for norwegian music, GAFONOM, was established in 2011. It is professional meeting place for teachers and research fellows who work primarily with norwegian music, both in research and performance.

GAFONOM has the following goals:

* Contributing to the dissemination of the Norwegian musical heritage.

* Contributing to an increased availability of Norwegian music that, for different reasons, is not well known.

* To be a vital professional player in the musical life of Bergen, Norway and abroad.

* Disseminating new knowledge about Norwegian music to relevant professional arenas and to the general public through different communication channels.

* To create interest for Norwegian music among master students and research fellows by means of building a professional environment and a network.

* To participate actively in international conferences.
 

GAFONOM’s activities include:

* Individual and group projects.

* CD documentation, digitalization, concert performances, editing/publication of scores, studies of performance practices/interpretation, musical analysis, historical research etc.

* Frequent professional meetings/seminars with internal and external contributors.

* Cooperation with partners such as the National Musical Heritage Project, Center for Grieg Research etc.

The members of GAFONOM have worked and/or are currently working with the music of many composers, among them Carl Arnold, Edvard Grieg, Agathe Backer-Grøndahl, Fartein Valen, Harald Sæverud, Magnar Åm, Geirr Tveitt, Ketil Hvoslef, Kenneth Sivertsen, Edvard Hagerup Bull, Knut Vaage, Klaus Egge, Ole Olsen, Eivind Alnæs, Signe Lund, Arvid Kleven, Catharinus Elling, Conrad Baden, Hjalmar Borgstrøm, Johannes Haarklou, Johan Selmer, Borghild Holmsen, Iver Holter, Thomas Tellefsen and Ludvig M. Lindeman.


Ongoing projects:


CD-recordings of Ketil Hvoslef's complete Chamber Music 2012-2020

The project «Ketil Hvoslef’s chamber music» was initiated in 2012 by violinist Ricardo Odriozola and pianist Einar Røttingen, both with backgrounds spanning many years of cooperation with thecomposer. The catalyst for the idea was the fact that most of Hvoslef’s chamber works had not been recorded and that, in view of their consistently high quality, deserved larger international attention and exposure. Thus, the idea to document all 38 works on CD arose, and the record company LAWO Classics agreed to come onboard.

Collaboration with the performers is intrinsic to Hvoslef’s work as a composer. By trying out his ideas in dialogue with the players, a higher refinementof the details is achieved and the score is altered accordingly. This is an important part of the compositional process.The recordings draw from the vast pool of performers in Bergen, where the composer lives and works, in order to facilitate a closer collaboration between composer and players on every single work up to the time of the actual recording.

The performers are primarily from the Grieg Academy (University of Bergen/Bergen University College) and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, with the addition of some musicians from other Scandinavian countries. The aim of the recordings is to help promote the establishment of a performance practice for Hvoslef’s music.

Article with link to LAWO for purchase of CDs


(Un-) Settling Styles and sites: Performers in Search of New Expressive Means".
Grieg Academy and GAFONOM received NOK 3.74 mill. for 3 year project starting August 2017 until June 30 2020.

This project aims to widen the area of what we can express, demonstrate and talk about in the performer’s search for expressive means when transmitting a musical composition’s expressive intentions into performances. Through the study of scores and relevant sources focusing on personal artistic reflections and intersubjective exchanges within a research group, the project seeks to get new insight into performative processes and make a contribution to developing and renewing ways we express ourselves as musicians in our music, and how we speak about our music within and outside music institutions.

The artistic results will be documented in concerts, recordings, videos and texts on performative issues and processes. 

Read more about this artistic research project

 


Members of GAFONOM:


Einar Røttingen (project leader): Professor of Music Performance/Piano. Grieg Academy, University of Bergen,

Hilde Haraldsen Sveen: Associate Professor of Voice. Grieg Academy, University of Bergen,

Signe Bakke: Associate Professor of Piano. Grieg Academy, University of Bergen,

Torleif Torgersen: Professor of Piano. Grieg Academy, University of Bergen

Ricardo Odriozola: Associate Professor of Violin. Grieg Academy, University of Bergen,

Arnulf Mattes: Associate Professor of Musicology (PhD and M.Mus. violoncello). Grieg Research Centre, University of Bergen,

Njål Sparbo: Bass-baritone and former fellow of The Norwegian Artistic Research Program and participant in NARP-funded “The Reflective Musician” at the Norwegian National Academy of Music.

Liv Elise Nordskog: Singer and violinist. Master in voice from Grieg Academy, violinist in Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

John Ehde: Assistant Professor of Cello at Malmö Academy of Music and Grieg Academy. 

Knut Vaage: Composer