Lars Notto Birkeland

Lars Notto Birkeland (born 1969 in Oslo) graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music where he studied organ with Harald Herresthal, piano with Hanna-Marie Weydahl, Sigmund Hjelset and Lars Haugbro, and harpsichord with Ketil Haugsand. Subsequently he studied the organ with Kåre Nordstoga in Oslo and Guy Bovet in Switzerland, and attended master classes with Marie-Claire Alain, Jon Laukvik, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini and Lionel Rogg, among others.

Birkeland gave his debut organ recital at Oslo Cathedral in 1998 and has since pursued an active performing career. He has appeared as a soloist with the Oslo Philharmonic in Poulenc’s organ concerto and Saint-Saën’s organ symphony, and performed solo with a number of other Norwegian orchestras as well as with the Swedish Radio Orchestra. He has given recitals at many festivals including the Bergen International Festival and Oslo International Church Music Festival. Birkeland received a government grant for artists for 2006-2008 in order to work, among other things, on the music of Jehan Alain.

Lars Notto Birkeland is an experienced pianist and conductor; he worked as chorus master and repetiteur at the Norwegian National Opera for a number of years. He has been organist at Fagerborg church in Oslo since 2003 where he was one of a group responsible for the realisation of the church’s new Goll organ in 2007.

Sept 2010