Daiyen Jone Castro is a musician, composer and educator from Cuba, based in Bergen. She developed her interest in music at the age of six and began her formal training at the Elementary Conservatory of Music as a flutist a couple of years later. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in classical flute in Cuba, before she moved to Norway where she studied jazz, composition and music pedagogy at the Grieg Academy Department of Music in Bergen. The various projects Daiyen is involved in range from music pulling on inspiration from her roots such as Cuban music, Latin jazz and world music, to research and experimentation in free improvisation, electronica, ambient and ‘fourth world music’. As a music creator, she is interested in exploring timbre, texture, and effects, experimenting with the use of silence and rhythm, and creating contrasts in the soundscape. Daiyen is involved in constellations such as NH3, Heavy Astro and To You They Are Birds, To Me They Are Voices in the Forest, and is an active part og Bergen’s culture scene. 

Eira Sjaastad Huse from Oslo is an opera singer and composer. As a vocal soloist, she has performed at prestigious festivals such as The Verbier Festival and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and has taken on opera roles at Opéra de Lyon, Den Norske Opera & Ballett, and Royal Opera House Muscat. In recent years, composition has also become an important part of her career. She has pursued advanced studies in composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music, as well as private lessons with composers such as Rolf Wallin, Rolf Gupta, Bente Leiknes Thorsen, and Rune Rebne. She is dedicated to exploring the range between the new and the old, the consonant and the expressionistic, and the virtuosic and the singable – often with some surprising elements. She enjoys composing works specifically tailored to the performer, to bring out their personality. Improvisation is a key element that ties together her work as a performer and composer. Eira participated in Ultima’s mentor programme Choral Prototypes in 2023 with George Lewis as her mentor, and is a member of nyMusikk’s composer group. Recent highlights as a composer include the world premiere of her work Witness at Tampere Biennale 2024, written for soprano Linnéa Sundfær Haug and the vocal ensemble Key Ensemble.

Evelin Lindberg is a sound artist who works with technology and performance as a tool, reference and field for conceptual explorations. Their works take shape in multi-channel sound and video, websites and apps, modified instruments, performances, installations, happenings and other extended and work-specific formats. As a young artist, they try to investigate the interfaces between artistic practice and society and its potential to confront the current time, and the relationships between the work’s material support and its conveyed essence. Evelin studied classical piano at the Falun Conservatory of Music, and composition at Gotland School of Music Composition. They have a bachelor’s degree from the Norwegian Academy of Music and Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart under the tuition of composers such as Joanna Bailie, Piet Johan Meyer & Natasha Barrett. Their works have been performed and displayed at festivals and events such as Ultima, Darmstädter Ferienkurse and IRCAM forum, and have been recognized through multiple grants and prize nominations. 

Jakob Thonander Glans is a composer from Oslo who lives and works in Oslo, Warsaw and Gothenburg. He mainly works as a contemporary composer, but he is also active as a guitarist in the hardcore punk-band RONÖM.  Jakob has a background from the underground punk scene surrounding the infamous punk squat Blitzhuset in Oslo, and considers punk culture to be an essential inspiration in all his artistic work. His music is often heavy, simple and utilises a great dynamic and thematic spectrum – spanning the traditional and experimental to the quiet and intensely loud. His music is bold, naïve and often contains theatrical aspects. His greatest goal as an artist is “to create extreme instantaneous reactions through brutal, sentimental or comical aspects”. His music has been played in all the Scandinavian countries and has worked with ensembles such as the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Insimul Sinfonietta, Ensemble K!ART and Ensemble GAEA. His works include opera, symphony, chamber pieces, solo pieces, electronic music, punk-rock and performance art.  

Okkyung Lee is a cellist, composer, and improviser who moves freely between artistic disciplines. Since 2000 she has worked as a solo artist and in collaboration with a wide range of creators. A native of South Korea, Lee has taken a broad array of inspirations – including noise, improvisation, jazz, western classical, and her homeland’s traditional and popular music – and used them to forge a highly distinctive approach. Although Okkyung is known best for her improvisational work utilising visceral extended techniques on her instrument, she has been creating various types of compositions and site-specific works responding to architecture, audience, or objects surrounding her, producing an immersive experience that also challenges the built-in hierarchy in traditional concert settings. 

In 2010, Okkyung received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant and a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award in 2015. She holds a dual bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Writing & Production and Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music and a master’s degree in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory of Music. She has performed in Museum of Modern Art as well as Whitney Museums of American Art in New York, Museo del Novecento in Milan, and Serpentine Galleries as well as White Cube Galleries in London, and many others. She has appeared on more than 30 albums, and been commissioned to compose music and assemble projects, including Explore Ensemble in London, Time Spans Festival in New York, Sonic Acts Festival in Amsterdam, and for Borealis in 2017. 

Camille Norment is an interdisciplinary multimedia artist, composer, and performer whose art and performance works are exhibited and performed worldwide. Cultural psychoacoustics is both an aesthetic and conceptual framework for much of her practice – the investigation of socio-cultural phenomena through the sonic as a force over the body, mind, and society. Composing artworks – through recorded sound, sculpture and installation, drawing, and live performance – she applies this concept towards the creation of critical artworks that are preoccupied with the way in which context, form, space, and the body of the viewer create experiences that are both somatic and cognitive. Camille was the Festival Artist 2023 with sound installations filling Bergen Kunsthall, while simultaneously premiering an ensemble commission in Bergen International Festival. She represented Norway in the 56th Venice Biennial of Art in 2015, with a three-part solo project that included a large-scale sound and sculptural installation, a publication series, and a sonic performance series. Camille had  a background of dance and music before completing her B.A. in Comparative Literature and Art History at the University of Michigan, Honors College. She completed both her Masters of Fine Art and a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications at New York University, and she is a Whitney Independent Study Program Fellow. Parallel to her artistic career, Camille has worked as a researcher at the renowned Interval Research multimedia think tank in Silicon Valley, and as Professor of Art at Malmö University. In 2024 she was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Bergen, Department of Art, Music and Design.

Sigurd Fischer Olsen is a composer, viola player and music educator. As a composer, he works with subdued and ambiguous music, exploring the spaces in-between larger movements, through fragile timbres and miniature forms. He uses listening as approach to create the structure along the way, rather than having a predefined plan. Sigurd has composed primarily for small and medium-sized ensembles, but in recent years he has started composing solo pieces and for symphony orchestras. Ensembles that have performed his works include KORK, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Sinfonietta, BIT20 Ensemble, ICE Ensemble, Ensemble Risognanze and Quatuor Bozzini. In 2017, his work Sserenades, written for BIT20 Ensemble and vocalist Sofia Jernberg, was nominated for the Edvard prize, and recommended at the International Rostrum of Composers 2018. Sigurd has also taught composition and music theory at the Grieg Academy in Bergen. In parallel, he works with Ursus Produksjoner, a stage company for experimental opera. The expression here is more eclectic and can lie at the intersection of contemporary music, sound installation, and performing arts, with other methods also being employed. The performances are composed with the musicians’ presence and physical movements, as well as homemade sound objects as central elements, while there can be significant genre differences within a single performance. The music and sound environments are usually partially notated, but much is developed in collaboration with musicians chosen from various backgrounds such as classical, jazz, improvisation, and folk music.

An important part of Borealis Ung Komponist is to support new music ensembles in Bergen. Although there are many good musicians in the city, there are few permanent groups that focus on contemporary music. For this edition of BUK, we are partnering with Ensemble Obsidian. Ensemble Obsidian was founded by composers Tor-Erik Hellesen, Craig Farr, and Kathrine Bauck in 2020. Together, they have expertise in performance, teaching, and cultural production, in addition to composition. The ensemble is passionate about bringing contemporary music to areas outside the major cities. They primarily do this through the touring series Ny musikk i distrikta (New Music in the Districts), which they produce themselves, performing contemporary music on local stages. The musicians in the ensemble are accustomed to dealing with alternative forms of notation and improvisation, as well as traditional forms of scores. For BUK 24/25 the ensemble consists of Zsuzsa Zseni on vocals, Matias Monsen on cello and Berit Hella Lindberg on flute.

Zsuzsa Zseni – vocal:
Zsuzsa Zseni is a classically trained mezzo-soprano with a keen interest in blending classical and modern vocal techniques. With a vocal range extending from a low D to a high H2, Zsuzsa is able to create a unique and captivating sound. She is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of traditional vocal music. Zsuzsa incorporates a variety of advanced techniques such as multiphonics, vocal fry, breath control, and speak singing into her performances. She is also open to integrate physical elements like body percussion and percussive instruments, adding an additional layer of rhythmic complexity to her music. She is interested in the intersection of music and technology. She experiments with electronic elements such as looping to create rich, textured soundscapes. Her creativity and skill in improvisation set her apart as a versatile and forward-thinking artist.

Matias Monsen – cello: 
A versatile cellist with experience from various genres, he is a member of Ensemble Obsidian, which focuses on newly composed Norwegian contemporary music, as well as the prog/metal band DROTT. Matias juggles many genres and is a frequently used session musician. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists, from Kaizers Orchestra and deLillos to Aurora and Sigrid.

Berit Hella Lindberg – flute: 
A flutist with education from the Norwegian Academy of Music and the Sibelius Academy. She plays everything from early to contemporary music and has performed with several professional bands and orchestras. She has played at Den Nationale Scene in various productions and frequently performs with the Royal Norwegian Navy Band. Berit has premiered several newly composed works – both solo and in various ensembles. She enjoys being part of the creative process, especially exploring the tonal possibilities of the flute and discovering unusual ways to play. Berit can play flute, piccolo, and alto flute, and she masters these techniques: whistle tones, jet whistle, harmonics, multiphonics, beatboxing on the flute, singing and playing, circular breathing, slap tongue, various percussive attacks, air tones, and glissando (within the flute’s possibilities).

Bergen’s festival for experimental music Borealis is proud to present another round of its mentor programme Borealis Ung Komponist (BUK) and are looking for 4 versatile music creators who are in the starting phase of developing as a composer, or who wants to further develop their skills to write music for others. Borealis work to promote a wide range of voices and role models – and want the future of experimental music to be characterised by many different perspectives. The programme has no upper age limit, and the participants of this year’s mentor programme will be remunerated.

Participants will with support from 3 mentors and in close collaboration with a dedicated ensemble write a piece of music of approx. 15 minutes that will be performed at the festival in 2025. This year’s mentor programme runs over the course of 7 months and includes 4 workshops with a duration of 3-4 days each, all happening in Bergen between September 2024 and March 2025. The mentor programme aims to gather music creators with different musical preferences, experiences, backgrounds and practices. You don’t have to work exclusively with notated music, the programme is open to other ways of communicating musical ideas, for example graphic scores.

This year’s mentors are a group of internationally renowned composers, performers and artists:
Camille Norment (US/NO), Okkyung Lee (KR) and Sigurd Fischer-Olsen (NO).
Scroll down for more info on the mentors.

This year’s ensemble is Ensemble Obsidian: Zsuzsa Zseni (vocala), Matias Monsen (cello) and Berit Hella Lindberg (flutes).
Scroll down for more info on the ensemble.

Borealis Ung Komponist is supported by Art and Culture Norway, Grieg Foundation and Vestland County Council