Tora Augestad - soprano
"Tora Augestad is far more than an academically trained singer. She lives and suffers through her songs, taking her vocal and theatrical capabilities to the max."Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
Tora Augestad‘s versatility inspires composers, directors and conductors. Always on the lookout for new challenges, she often commissions works and looks for an exchange of artistic ideas in a number of ensembles that she started herself. She knows her voice, which defies current classifications of voice type, extremely well and uses her gift with savvy intelligence.
Born in Bergen in 1979, the singer/actress Tora Augestad studied classical music and jazz voice in Oslo and Stockholm, dedicating herself to repertoire from the 20th and 21st century. Her focus would shift to German repertoire during travels to Berlin and Munich for lessons. She obtained her master's degree in cabaret at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. Apart from participating in the Norwegian Soloists' Choir and the vocal group Pitsj, she performed in several cabaret and opera productions, including The Magic Flute, and contemporary operas such as Inside your mouth, sucking the sun by Niels Rønsholdt. Solo performances followed with the ensemble Cikada (Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival 2005), with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra.
In 2006, Tora Augestad premiered four works written for her, among them September Song by Eivind Buene. This was followed by performances at the Norwegian ULTIMA Festival and the Oslo Chamber Music Festival, where she performed Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire with the Oslo Sinfonietta. In 2007, she played Jenny in Brecht's Threepenny Opera at the Norwegian Riksteatret, and again in 2008 with the Ensemble Modern under the baton of HK Gruber in Athens. She also appears often with Ensemble Modern for performances of Benedict Mason's Chaplin Operas, most recently at the Dresden Festival of Contemporary Music, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Salzburg Biennale, and in 2011 at Festival Musica Strasbourg.
She has played the main role in the opera The Witches by Marcus and Ole Paus, based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name and has sung the part of Eboli in a modern version of Verdi's Don Carlos. 2009 she appeared at the Norske Opera Oslo and the Venice Biennale (Eine Bitte, Christian Eggen, Oslo Sinfonietta), as well as at the Theater Basel and MaerzMusik in Berlin (Wüstenbuch, Beat Furrer, Klangforum Wien). In 2010, she gave her successful debut with Ensemble Contrechamps in No Thanks by Evan Garner. Tora Augestad's CD with double bassist Uli Fussenegger, on which she sings Beat Furrer's Lotofágos, was released on Kairo and received rave reviews.
Tora Augestad is a member of the ensemble MUSIC FOR A WHILE, which she formed with a group of renowned Norwegian jazz musicians in 2004. Their CD Weill Variations was released in 2007. Shortly afterwards, the soprano was awarded the famous Lotte Lenya Prize. Since 2009, the ensemble has performed regularly at the Kurt Weill Fest in Dessau. Together with her trio BOA (clarinet, cello, voice), she has commissioned fourteen works by renowned Norwegian composers who inhabit the world between pop and the musical avant-garde.
Since the world premiere of Beat Furrer's opera Wüstenbuch, Tora has worked closely with Swiss director Christoph Marthaler. In 2010/11 she performed at the Theater Basel in the successful production of Meine faire Dame - Marthaler's own version of My Fair Lady. The audience was so enthusiastic that the work has been brought back for another season. Starting in November, Tora Augestad appears in Marthaler‘s new piece Lo Stimolatore Cardiaco, in which he brings together the topic of Italian opera with the life-prolonging usage of a pacemaker.
Additional highlights this season include Grisey‘s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil with Klangforum Wien under Sylvain Cambreling in the Vienna Konzerthaus, a work that she previously performed with the BIT20 Ensemble at the Bergen Festival. She will also sing in the premiere of Enno Poppe's new opera at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele 2012.
2011/2012 season
Tora Augestad‘s versatility inspires composers, directors and conductors. Always on the lookout for new challenges, she often commissions works and looks for an exchange of artistic ideas in a number of ensembles that she started herself. She knows her voice, which defies current classifications of voice type, extremely well and uses her gift with savvy intelligence.
Born in Bergen in 1979, the singer/actress Tora Augestad studied classical music and jazz voice in Oslo and Stockholm, dedicating herself to repertoire from the 20th and 21st century. Her focus would shift to German repertoire during travels to Berlin and Munich for lessons. She obtained her master's degree in cabaret at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. Apart from participating in the Norwegian Soloists' Choir and the vocal group Pitsj, she performed in several cabaret and opera productions, including The Magic Flute, and contemporary operas such as Inside your mouth, sucking the sun by Niels Rønsholdt. Solo performances followed with the ensemble Cikada (Huddersfield Contemporary Music festival 2005), with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra.
In 2006, Tora Augestad premiered four works written for her, among them September Song by Eivind Buene. This was followed by performances at the Norwegian ULTIMA Festival and the Oslo Chamber Music Festival, where she performed Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire with the Oslo Sinfonietta. In 2007, she played Jenny in Brecht's Threepenny Opera at the Norwegian Riksteatret, and again in 2008 with the Ensemble Modern under the baton of HK Gruber in Athens. She also appears often with Ensemble Modern for performances of Benedict Mason's Chaplin Operas, most recently at the Dresden Festival of Contemporary Music, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Salzburg Biennale, and in 2011 at Festival Musica Strasbourg.
She has played the main role in the opera The Witches by Marcus and Ole Paus, based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name and has sung the part of Eboli in a modern version of Verdi's Don Carlos. 2009 she appeared at the Norske Opera Oslo and the Venice Biennale (Eine Bitte, Christian Eggen, Oslo Sinfonietta), as well as at the Theater Basel and MaerzMusik in Berlin (Wüstenbuch, Beat Furrer, Klangforum Wien). In 2010, she gave her successful debut with Ensemble Contrechamps in No Thanks by Evan Garner. Tora Augestad's CD with double bassist Uli Fussenegger, on which she sings Beat Furrer's Lotofágos, was released on Kairo and received rave reviews.
Tora Augestad is a member of the ensemble MUSIC FOR A WHILE, which she formed with a group of renowned Norwegian jazz musicians in 2004. Their CD Weill Variations was released in 2007. Shortly afterwards, the soprano was awarded the famous Lotte Lenya Prize. Since 2009, the ensemble has performed regularly at the Kurt Weill Fest in Dessau. Together with her trio BOA (clarinet, cello, voice), she has commissioned fourteen works by renowned Norwegian composers who inhabit the world between pop and the musical avant-garde.
Since the world premiere of Beat Furrer's opera Wüstenbuch, Tora has worked closely with Swiss director Christoph Marthaler. In 2010/11 she performed at the Theater Basel in the successful production of Meine faire Dame - Marthaler's own version of My Fair Lady. The audience was so enthusiastic that the work has been brought back for another season. Starting in November, Tora Augestad appears in Marthaler‘s new piece Lo Stimolatore Cardiaco, in which he brings together the topic of Italian opera with the life-prolonging usage of a pacemaker.
Additional highlights this season include Grisey‘s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil with Klangforum Wien under Sylvain Cambreling in the Vienna Konzerthaus, a work that she previously performed with the BIT20 Ensemble at the Bergen Festival. She will also sing in the premiere of Enno Poppe's new opera at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele 2012.
2011/2012 season
General Management
Photo: Åsa Maria Mikkelsen
Photo: Åsa Maria Mikkelsen
Photo: Thomas Olsen