Torleif Torgersen

Torleif Torgersen is born in Bergen and made his debut in Oslo in 1992. He studied with Einar Steen-Nøkleberg, Eva Knardahl and Lazar Berman at the Norwegian Academy of Music and with Liisa Pohjola at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He received his Diploma in 1993 and joined the MiN-ensemble in Northern Norway the same year. With this sinfonietta type ensemble he has since toured in Norway and Europe and made several CD recordings, also of works composed especially for him.

His solo debut CD from 1995 with works by the Norwegian composers Fartein Valen and Lasse Thoresen (Simax PSC1105) was nominated for a Norwegian Grammy. He has also recorded the complete piano works of Norwegian composer Klaus Egge (PSC1131), a recording that was prepared while staying as a resident artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada in 1996-97. He has performed at a number of international festivals among them the Berliner Festwochen, St. Petersburg festival and the Prague Festival.

Since 2005 Torleif Torgersen has performed with violinist Shlomo Mintz in concerts in most of Europe as well as Israel, Japan and South Amerika. Torgersen has also performed with conductors including Karsten Andersen Nicholas Carthy, Alf Årdal, Arvid Engegård and Hakan Sensoy. As a performer on historical instruments Torleif Torgersen has held many concerts and lectures. In addition to lessons with Liv Glaser he has also has taken part in numerous workshops with Malcolm Bilson and Bart van Oort. Since 2002 Torleif Torgersen is Professor at the Grieg Academy in Bergen.

June 2011