Jan Bjøranger
Founder and artistic director
Jan Bjøranger is one of Europe's foremost violinists and ensemble leaders.
As the founder and artistic director of the renowned and award-winning orchestra 1B1, where the focus is on making classical music available to a wide audience, he has helped to establish new standards for ensemble and orchestral playing. In this context, Vanity Fair refers to 1B1 as "one of the seven most important ensembles on the classical stage today"
The recordings of Grieg's Suite from Holberg's time, and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in collaboration with Lars Anders Tomter, are referred to by the German and Austrian press as reference recordings. The Grieg recording was also awarded a fiddler's prize in 2014.
In addition to 1B1, Jan Bjøranger has conducted a number of other prominent ensembles, including Camerata Salzburg, the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Trondheim Soloists.
In collaboration with musicians such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Iona Brown, Yejin Gil, Christian Ihle Hadland, Benjamin Schmid, Clemens Hagen, Mariss Jansons, Phillippe Herreweghe and Kristjan Järvi, Bjøranger has toured all over the world and played in halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Große Musikvereinsaal in Vienna and Royal Albert Hall in London.
Of the composer's collaborations, projects with Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Piers Hellawell, Gija Kancheli, James MacMillan, Daniel Schnyder, Mark Anthony Turnage Hafli∂i Hallgrimsson and Rolf Wallin can be mentioned in particular
Jan Bjøranger is passionate about education and has taught most of his life. He is the coach for conductors at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and also leads the preparations for orchestra productions at the same institution. He is also the assistant artistic director of the Virtuoso & Belcanto festival in Lucca, Tuscany since 2016 and provides regular master classes around the world.
Jan Bjøranger plays a Domenicus Montagnana violin from 1725 and is represented by Andreas Richter Cultural Consulting GmbH, Berlin
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Jan Bjøranger lives and works in Berlin
Artistic advisor
Yejin Gil is an excellent, award-winning pianist. She combines technical brilliance with musical depth in her uncompromising pursuit of artistic authenticity. She is as well oriented in the classical and romantic repertoire as in works from the 20th and 21st century. Her brilliant debut CD with works by Chin, Ligeti, Boulez and the Messiah won the "Coup de Coeur" 2014 by Académie Charles Cros and her 2017 Scriabin album was nominated for the award for German record critics and the International Classical Music Awards.
In recent years, Gil has collaborated with composers such as Unsuk Chin, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Hurel, Heiner Goebbels, Helmut Oehring, Martin Matalon and Oscar Strasnoy and performed with conductors such as Kent Nagano, Hans Rotman, Steven Sloane, Alexander Merzyn and Joseph Bousso.
She has had solo assignments with orchestras such as the Hamburg Philharmoniker, Bochumer Symphoniker, MDR Synfonieorchester, Philharmonisches Orchester des Staatstheaters Cottbus, Berliner Symphoniker and Staatskapelle Halle,
Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble Court-Circuit and Zafraan Ensemble.
She constantly performs with musicians such as Jörg Widmann, David Adorjan, Matthias Schorn, Jan Bjøranger, Nora Chastain, Lars Anders Tomter, Torleif Thedéen, Martin Löhr, Øyvind Gimse and Martin Funda.
In 2014, she was "Artist in Residence" at the Impuls festival in Brussels, Berlin, Magdeburg and Halle, and played Bernstein's piano concerto "The Age of Anxiety", and was broadcast live on MDR. At the end of 2015, her second CD was released with a pure Mussorgsky program, which could be experienced on a series of regular shows in France and Germany.
Yejin Gil has had solo performances at events such as Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Thüringer Bachwochen, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Kasseler Musiktage, IFCP Festival New York, Frontiers Plus Birmingham, Young Euro Classic Berlin, International Piano Festival La Roque d'Anthéron, Acanthes Festival Metz, Tongyeong International Music Festival, Stavanger Chamber Music Festival and Virtuoso & belcanto festival in Lucca on stages such as Grand Théâtre de Genève, Essen Philharmonie, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Salle Cortot Paris, Weimarhalle, Konzerthaus Berlin and Seoul Arts Center.
She regularly gives seminars and masterclasses in Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Italy and is an active member of the jury at international piano competitions.
Yejin Gil holds concert degrees from Seoul National University and Folkwang Art University in Essen with awards.
She is also a prize winner in a number of international competitions, including the Korea National Competition (first prize), the Köhler-Osbahr-Wettbewerb (first prize) and the Orléans Concours International (winner and sole finalist with four main prizes: Prix Nadia Boulanger, Prix​​ Albert Roussel, Prix Sacem, Prix Hitachi and special prize for best interpretation of Philippe Hurels' play "Interstices").
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Yejin Gil lives and works in Berlin.
Yejin Gil
"Gil has the fingers to articulate the densest, fast-moving passages in such music with dazzling precision, but everything she does is also perceptive and utterly musical, none of the wit in either set eluding her." (The Guardian)
Øyvind Gimse
Artistic Advisor
Øyvind Gimse is one of Norway's most renowned musicians by virtue of his work as a cellist, ensemble leader, educator and entrepreneur.
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Øyvind has for a period of more than 15 years been the artistic director of the Trondheim soloists and together they have toured large parts of Europe, the USA, South America and Asia.
The collaboration between TrondheimSolistene / Gimse and the record company 2L has resulted in a total of 7 GRAMMY nominations for the ensemble's five recordings. He has collaborated with Anne-Sophie Mutter for many years and is a regular member of the Ensemble Berlin, A Free Group, consisting of musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic and several other prominent orchestras. In this context, he has also been the professional leader of the project "konstknekt", a talent development program that gives very talented students the opportunity to interact with some of the leading musicians in the world.
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Øyvind has worked as a solo cellist in the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Broadcasting Orchestra and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and has for several periods been artistic director of the "Winter Festival in Bergstaden" which takes place in Røros.
He is currently employed as a professor at the Department of Music at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He plays on a Francesco Goffriller (1735) on loan from the Sparebankstiftelsen / Dextra Musica. For his efforts for Trondheim's cultural life, he was awarded the Trondheim Municipality's Culture Prize for 2013.
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Øyvind has been part of Klassisk i centrum's management team since the start in 2018.