Kristine Tjøgersen
© Rui Camilo
For Kristine Tjøgersen, anything alive can be a source of inspiration: nature’s nocturnal life (Night Lives), the colourful metamorphosis of birds of paradise (Shape-Shifters), the places where animals find shelter (Habitat), or the underground rhizomes connecting trees (Between Trees).
Her music reflects a deep desire to “give nature a voice”. She does this by adding a multidisciplinary dimension to her work, often collaborating with biologists. This ambition to channel nature also lies at the heart of her research project UNFOLDING NATURE – Nature Expressed through Classical and Contemporary Composition.
Born in Oslo in 1982, Kristine Tjøgersen is an award-winning composer and clarinettist. In 2024, she received the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Composition Prize, also referred to as the “Nobel Prize of composition”. Her album Between Trees won two Spellemann Awards, the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammys. Her work has been performed by numerous ensembles, including Ensemble Recherche, Klangforum Wien and Kronos Quartet, as well as orchestras such as the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. It has travelled across Europe and the Americas, earning her rapidly growing international recognition.
Tjøgersen has a generous artistic personality, driven by curiosity, imagination, wit and empathy. She turns her gaze towards nature in its perpetual movement: to forces and connections that often elude us, either because they are too subtle, or simply because we have not learned to perceive them.
Her musical voice is gaining momentum, and her rich, delicate and playful body of work resonates with the challenges of our time.
“By giving nature a voice in the concert hall, I hope to allow audiences to discover these precious life forms and become aware of what we risk losing if we continue to interfere with nature.”