Grete Pedersen is one of the most renowned conductors in the international choral scene. Since 1990 she is Music Director of the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, whose recordings have been awarded CHOC de la musique as well as Diapason d’Or. She is a demanded guest conductor who has worked with choirs such as Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Netherlands Radio Choir and Netherlands Chamber Choir, Swedish Radio Choir, Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Pro Coro Canada and Tokyo Cantat as well as orchestras like the Freiburger Barockorchester and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

During the 2019–2020 season, she has has engagements with the Chœur de Radio France, Netherlands Bach Society, BBC Singers and the Latvian Radio Choir, among others. She is known for productions with wide stylistic variety and strikingly contrasting concert programmes. In addition to premiering contemporary musical works, her efforts have been increasingly directed towards larger productions for choir and orchestra.

With the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, she has recorded works by Per Nørgård, Kaija Saariaho, Olivier Messiaen and Knut Nystedt as well as Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms and Edvard Grieg and Norwegian folk music. Their recording of Bach motets with Ensemble Allegria was awarded the Diapason d’Or in 2018 and The Wind Blows with music by Alfred Janson was chosen as Gramophone’s Record of the Year in 2018.

Trombonist Nils Landgren embodies the words diversity, curiosity and zeal. He performed with musicians like Björn Skifs, Thad Jones and ABBA before launching his solo career and, from their formation in 1992, as the front man of acclaimed ensemble Nils Landgren Funk Unit. He is a prominent recording artist, having performed on well over 50 albums since his first solo album in 1984.

In 1998, Nils started his extended collaboration with the NDR Big Band in Hamburg, first as section trombonist and later as Artistic Advisor, lasting until 2012. He has also been Artistic Director of prestigious Jazzfest Berlin for five years and for Bohuslän Big Band between 2007 and 2015. In 2012, Nils was appointed Artistic Director of the Jazz Baltica Festival in Germany after performing at the festival ever since its inception in 1991. 2006 saw the premiere of a self-described “long-time dream come true”, Christmas With My Friends, an all-star concert and album project that has since become a beloved Christmas mainstay.

Nils has been decorated with two medals by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Litteris et Artibus and Medaljen för tonkonstens främjande, and with the Bundesverdienstkreuz by German Bundespresident Frank Walther Steinmeier. Nils is Honorary Doctor at the University of Karlstad and Professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.