Internationally Renowned Oslo Chamber Choir to Perform at St. Stephen’s on Saturday

The Oslo Chamber Choir of Norway, an innovative voice in international music, will perform at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ridgefield on Saturday, April 8, at 7:30 p.m. (one night before the group’s appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York). The church, known for its excellent acoustics, is located at 351 Main St.

Founded in 1984, the choir is composed of some 24 singers who are extensively trained in performing Norwegian folk music.   Working closely with selected composers who specialize in Norwegian folk music, it has developed a new way of using this music in a choral setting. The Oslo Chamber Choir has toured throughout Europe, Asia and the U.S., and has performed by invitation at various international music festivals, as well as at the opening ceremony of the winter Olympics in Lillehammer in 1994.

In a review of their CD “Strid” (Norwegian for “struggle”), Steven Ritter wrote: “This is in fact one of the most beautiful choral albums I have every heard in my life, and the ‘folk’ elements in the form of the plaintive solo singers . . . [are] like commentary on the more formal and ‘traditional’ elements found in the choral work of Grieg, Rachmaninoff, Bruckner and others.”

The conductor of the Oslo Chamber Choir is Hakon Daniel Nystadt (pictured), who studied piano and violin at an early age and became conductor of his first choir at 17. He studied music at the Norwegian Academy of Music. At his exam concert he conducted Antonin Dvorak’s Requiem Mass with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, resulting in being awarded the orchestra’s prize for young and aspiring musicians.

Tickets for this event are $25 ($20 seniors) and are available at the door or online at https://music-at-st-stephens.ticketleap.com/oslo-chamber-choir/