**CANCELLED** UTNMF: The Sound of Nordic Voices

Concert
Composition
Voice Studies
January 26, 2026
12:00pm - 2:00pm
Walter Hall

80 Queens Park

Free

*This event has been cancelled due to inclement weather

Norbert Palej, festival coordinator


PROGRAM

 

Nordic Voices: Tone Braaten, Ingrid Hanken, Ebba Rydh, Per Kristian Amundrød, 

Bård Bratlie, Rolf Magne Asser

 

Solbøn

Lasse Thoresen (b.1949)

 

From The Bee Madrigals

Bjørn Skjelbred (b.1970)

Still in silence
I was no alien
Spring without voices

 

From Studies After Nature

Peter Ablinger (b. 1959)

No. 3
No. 6
No. 9

 

From Scar Tissue

Jeffrey Ryan (b.1962)
Debris

 

A Dismantled Ode to the Mortal Value of Art

Maja S. K. Ratkje (b.1973)


BIOGRAPHY

 

Nordic Voices is a Norwegian vocal ensemble known for its long-standing engagement with contemporary music and close collaboration with composers. The ensemble explores the voice as sound, space, and carrier of meaning, with a particular focus on collective listening, blend, and presence.

The program reflects this exploration through works by Lasse Thoresen, Bjørn Skjelbred, Peter Ablinger, Jeffrey Ryan, and Maja S. K. Ratkje—composers who approach sound from different perspectives, yet share an interest in nature, silence, text, and the physicality of the voice.

Together, the works form a poetic and attentive soundscape, inviting the listener into the fragile, the raw, and the deeply human aspects of vocal expression.