musicians ​
Christian Eggen
conductor
​
(b. 1957)
Founding member of Cikada.
Conductor, composer and pianist, Christian Eggen is one of the most influential personalities on the Norwegian music scene, ranging from contemporary music via genremerging projects, installations, television and radio drama productions to film, theatre, jazz, opera and classical music.
As a conductor, he is known as one of Europe’s finest interpreters of contemporary music and has worked closely with composers such as Morton Feldman, John Cage and Helmut Lachenmann. As artistic director of the Oslo Sinfonietta, he has developed the Norwegian sinfonietta repertoire since the nineties, and he regularly appears on the European contemporary music scene with groups such as the Ensemble MusikFabrik and Ensemble InterContemporain. His work with orchestras includes the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan and the Royal Philharmonic in London.
He has written music for a vast range of formations and settings. His first opera, the Franz Kafka Pictures will receive its complete world premiere at the Norwegian National Opera in the autumn of 2013. Sections of the opera have been performed since 2009.
As a pianist, Christian Eggen has gained international acclaim for his interpretations of Mozart and the Danish composer Carl Nielsen, as on the recording Carl Nielsen: Piano Music on the Victoria Label
Christian Eggen appears on a great number of recordings within all aspects of his wide musical horizons. He has been principle featured performer at the Bergen International Festival and in 2007, he was appointed Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav for his work with Norwegian and international contemporary music.
Anne-Karine Hauge
flute
​
(b. 1968)
Member of Cikada since 2003
In her work with the contemporary repertoire, Anne Karine Hauge Rønning is active in both Cikada, the Oslo Sinfonietta and in various freelance formations. She has made CD-recordings with both the Cikada, Oslo Sinfonietta, The Norwegian Radio Orchestra as well as with the Norwegian singer-songwriter Anja Garbarek, to name but a few. She is the alternating soloist in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
Rolf Borch
clarinet
​
(b. 1975)
Member of Cikada since 2009
Rolf Borch is the most distinguished Norwegian clarinettists of his generation with a strong dedication to contemporary music. Apart from Cikada, he is a member of the Asamisimasa Ensemble and is a regular soloist with orchestras in Norway and abroad. He is a highly acclaimed solo performer and has world premiered numerous solo clarinet pieces written for him, and has been part of numerous recordings, among them the outstanding solo album Step Inside on Aurora records with solo works by Helmut Lachenmann and Norwegian composers such as Eivind Buene. He is currently a ph.d. student under the Norwegian Artistic Research programme at the Norwegian Academy of Music with a project on the contrabass clarinet.
Bjørn Rabben
percussion
​
(b. 1959)
Founding member of Cikada.
Bjørn Rabben is one of the most recognized Norwegian percussionists and divides his time between the contemporary music scene and working as a freelance orchestra and opera percussionist. Within contemporary music, he has dedicated his time to the Cikada ensemble, the Cikada Duo, which he founded with pianist Kenneth Karlsson, and the improvising quartet Point 4, merging the Cikada Duo with pianist Jon Balke and percussionist Ingar Zach. Apart from numerous CD recordings with Cikada and Oslo Sinfonietta, Point 4 released the CD Panopticon on Sofa Records, receiving international reclaim for its refined and structured improvisations.
Kenneth Karlsson
piano
​
(b. 1952)
Founding member of Cikada.
​
Born in Sweden, Kenneth Karlsson has played a very important role in the development of the Oslo based contemporary music scene since the eighties. Within Cikada, he is the central repertoire researcher, concert programme and commissioning developer and has initiated a number of projects with video, dance and multimedia within the ensemble. Over the years, he has also established a number of chamber formations within Cikada, such as Cikada Duo and the new Cikada trio RBK (viola, clarinet and piano. He is part of the improvising quartet Point 4, merging the Cikada Duo with pianist Jon Balke and percussionist Ingar Zach. Apart from numerous CD recordings with Cikada, Point 4 released the CD Panopticon on Sofa Records, receiving international reclaim for its refined and structured improvisations. Also, he has a duo with the soprano Elisabeth Holmertz, performing across genres and ages, happily including the Indian harmonium. As a solo pianist, Karlsson released the CD the view was all in lines in 2012 on 2L with works by Arnold Schönberg and the Norwegian composers Rolf Wallin and Asbjørn Schaathun. In 2000, he released sofferte onde serene on Albedo with pieces by Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio and Giacinto Scelsi, which received a Norwegian Grammy for contemporary music album of that year. Kenneth Karlsson teaches piano at the Asker Cultural School outside Oslo and is a contemporary repertoire consultant at the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden.
Karin Hellqvist
violin
​
(b. 1983)
Member of Cikada since 2012
Swedish born violinist Karin Hellqvist is residing in Stockholm and Oslo and is performing internationally as an interpreter of contemporary music. As a violinist in a young generation of musicians engaged in the music of today, she is active in several ensembles apart from Cikada, such as the Oslo Sinfonietta, neoN and Duo Hellqvist/Amaral. As a soloist she works to broaden the contemporary music repertoire for solo violin through a range of international commissions and current performances as a soloist include festivals as Münchener Biennale, ECLAT Stuttgart, Temporeale Florence, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Ultima Oslo and Svensk Musikvår. Karin is educated in Stockholm, Berlin, Oslo and London where she received her Artist Diploma in performance 2011 from the Royal College of Music. She is awarded the Interpreter's Prize from the Swedish Society of Composers and has contributed to several award winning recordings. www.karinhellqvist.com
Sara Övinge
violin
​
(b. 1988)
Member of Cikada since 2023.
Sara Övinge took her Diploma in Oslo in 2010, as the youngest ever. After that, she was in London until 2012. Sara has, among other things, won "Lytternes solist" in Sweden's biggest music competition - the Soloist prize. She also won Ljunggrenska's competition for young musicians, which led to solo engagements with many of the leading symphony orchestras in Scandinavia. In 2014, she was employed as 2nd concertmaster in Den Norske Opera & Ballett, but chose to resign from her job in 2016. Since then, she has mainly worked as a chamber musician, soloist, and concertmaster, both within classical and contemporary music. Her focus has, alongside this, been to build up musical breadth through collaboration with producers, composers, choreographers, and artists outside of classical music.
Bendik Bjørnstad Foss
viola
​
(b. 1978)
Member of Cikada since 2010
Bendik Foss is one of the key viola players on the Norwegian contemporary music scene. Apart from Cikada, he is a member of the sinfonietta Ensemble Ernst and the Oslo Sinfonietta and he has performed with most other Norwegian contemporary music groups, and was a member of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra from 2002-2010. As a freelancer, he has also worked with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and the Trondheim Soloists.
He appears on the CD Snowblind with the Trondheim Sinfonietta on Øra Fonogram, where he is the soloist in the viola concerto of the same name by the Norwegian composer Jon Øivind Ness.
Torun Sæter Stavseng
cello
(b. 1983)
​
Member of Cikada since 2013
​
Torun Stavseng is a Norwegian cellist interested in a wide span of music and active as a soloist, chamber musician and principal cellist of Aurora Orchestra. Torun has worked as a principal and co-principal cellist of numerous Nordic orchestras, and together with violinist Liv Hilde Klokk and violist Ida Bryhn she has formed TrioTaus. Alongside London-based cellists/composers Gregor Riddell and Colin Alexander, she also formed Tre Voci, which explores music ranging from transcriptions of renaissance choral works to new commissions.
Torun is co-founder and creative director of KRANTZ, a new chamber music series in Oslo taking place at Nynorskens Hus.
Magnus Söderberg
double bass
​
(b. 1955)
Founding member of Cikada.
Born in Sweden, Magnus Söderberg is alternating solo double bassist in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. He has been a part of the Norwegian contemporary music scene since the eighties, and apart from Cikada performing regularly with the Oslo Sinfonietta.