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Biography

The Norwegian violinist Guro Kleven Hagen (b. 1994) made a highly successful debut with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Jukka Pekka Saraste in 2011, and has since been playing concerts with many major orchestras in Scandinavia. Her recent recording of Prokofiev´s 2nd and Bruch´s 1st Violin Concertos with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Bjarte Engeset was chosen as “Editor´s Choice of the Month” by Gramophone Magazine in August 2014. The recording was also short-listed in the Gramophone Guide as one of the finest classical releases of 2014/2015.

As a soloist, Guro has been working with orchestras in Germany, Russia, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Estonia, Israel, Jordan and Norway, with conductors such as Johannes Gustavsson, Christian Vasques, Christian Arming, Cornelius Meister, Ari Rasilainen, Perry So, Jaime Martín and Eivind Aadland. Upcoming engagements include concerts with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra / Krzysztof Urbanski, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/ Ed Gardner, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra / Vasily Petrenko.

As a chamber musician, Guro has performed with Janine Jansen, Leif Ove Andsnes, Marianna Shirinyan, Maxim Rysanov, Andreas Brantelid, Shlomo Mintz, István Várdai, Itamar Golan, Ida Haendel, Håvard Gimse and Christian Ihle Hadland. She is a regular guest to many of Norway’s leading festivals including the Risør, Elverum and the Oslo Chamber Music Festivals and is currently the Artistic Director of Valdres Sommersymfoni. On top of that she has established the Edvard Munch Ensemble.

Guro is a prize winner of numerous international competitions, including EMCY’s prize for Music in the Menuhin Competition 2010 and the 2nd prize in the Eurovision Young Musician Competition in Vienna 2010. She has also received the Arve Tellefsen Musicians Prize (2014), the Statoil talent scholarship in classical music (2013), the Norwegian Soloist Award (2010), the Prinz-von-Hessen-Preis in Kronberg (2009), and was celebrated as Norway’s Young Musician of the year at the age of fourteen (2008).

Guro just finished her studies with Antje Weithaas at the “Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler” in Berlin, after several years of studying with Stephan Barratt-Due and Alf Richard Kraggerud at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo. In 2016 she was chosen to take part in the Crescendo mentorship programme. This is a programme for outstanding musicians on the verge of an international career and is a joint venture between the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen International Festival, and the Barratt Due Institute of Music.

Guro plays on a C. Bergonzi, also known as the “Kreisler-Bergonzi” kindly on loan from Dextra Musica.