Artists War Sailors' Requiem

Astrid Nordstad is a Norwegian mezzo-soprano who in 2022 was awarded the Tom Wilhelmsen Opera and Ballet Prize. After studying at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Opera Academy in Copenhagen, she was a soloist intern at the Norwegian Opera & Ballet from 2018 to 2020. From 2024, she holds a tenure position as a soloist at the Norwegian Opera & Ballet. She has also performed roles at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, where she has sung the role of Olga in Eugene Onegin.

She also frequently performs as a concert singer and will soon make her debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where she is a soloist in Bruckner's Mass in F minor. She has also performed roles at other opera houses in Norway and has performed Mahler's Rückert-Lieder with the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra and Ravel's Shéhérazade with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra

Bergen-born tenor Thorbjørn Gulbrandsøy resides in Amsterdam and works both domestically and internationally since completing his education at The Royal Academy of Music in London. He has performed at renowned venues such as Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Opera North, and Grand Teatro del Liceu. His opera roles include Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande in London, Rodolfo in La Bohème in the Netherlands and on tour in the UK, and Romeo in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette on tour in Sweden.

From 2015 to 2017, Thorbjørn sang at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in many roles, such as Vana Kundrjas in Katya Kabanova, the Steersman in The Flying Dutchman, and Tamino in The Magic Flute, which he reprised in 2019 in the same house. In 2021, he returned to Oslo, this time in the title role in Orpheus in the Underworld.

Thorbjørn is a passionate Lieder singer with programs that include works such as Schumann's Dichterliebe and Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte. The autumn of 20223, Thorbjørn debuted the role of Hoffmann in The Tales of Hoffmann at the Norrlandsoperan in Umeå, Sweden.

Bass-baritone Magne Fremmerlid was born and raised in the village of Skodje in Sunnmøre.

He received his music education from the Rogaland Conservatory of Music in Stavanger, where he studied singing with Marit Storækre. He made his debut concert in the University Aula with support from Rikskonsertene.

Fremmerlid worked as a music teacher at Solborg Folk High School in Stavanger and at the Vestfold University College for 14 years before joining the soloist ensemble at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in 1997.

Here, he was a soloist for 19 years and has performed over 75 different opera roles, including Sarastro in The Magic Flute, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Scarpia in Tosca, Escamillo in Carmen, Hagen in Götterdämmerung, Heinrich in Lohengrin, Daland in The Flying Dutchman, Gurnemanz in Parsifal, Zaccaria in Nabucco, the title role in Bluebeard's Castle, and Boris in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

Fremmerlid is also a highly active concert and oratorio singer both domestically and internationally, and he has performed concerts with all the professional orchestras in Norway.

The last years he has performed in Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Slovenia, in addition to several concerts in Norway.

Bjarte Engeset graduated with a diploma in 1989 from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where he studied under Jorma Panula. He was also invited to study with Seiji Ozawa, among others, during the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1991. Engeset has conducted leading orchestras in the Nordic countries, the United States, Mexico, and most European countries. In 1997, he shared conducting duties with Mariss Jansons during the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra's Asian tour. His London debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997 was received with excellent reviews.

Bjarte Engeset was the artistic director and chief conductor of Royal Norwegian Navy Band from 2014 to 2020. Since the summer of 2020, he has been employed as the head of conductor training at the University of Stavanger.

Royal Norwegian Navy Band (RNNB), based at Karljohansvern in Horten, was established in 1820. Along with the Staff Band of the Armed Forces, the RNNB is the band with the most assignments on behalf of the royal family, government, and parliament. The band also collaborates closely with other military units throughout Eastern Norway.

RNNB is a popular and distinctive ensemble, with its 27 professional musicians performing both domestically and internationally – including in the United States, Vietnam, Germany, France, China, and Spain. The band has had several tours to Afghanistan, performing for Norwegian and foreign forces. The band has held concerts with musical luminaries in almost all musical genres. In 2003, the Navy Band won the Norwegian Spellemann Award in the folk music category, with the legend Erik Bye.