Schubert Lounge

According to Eivind Buene, Franz Schubert was a singer-songwriter. And with the Schubertiade as a model, Buene – who grew up with pop music – pictured Schubert in a 1970s singer-songwriter guise: with a Fender Rhodes and the voice of a pop singer. Thus, the first round of Schubert Lounge was born: house concerts for friends and acquaintances of the composer. It was after one of these concerts that Halvor Festervoll Melien suggested a collaboration.

Buene is interested in the friction between different aesthetics and different ideas. In the new Schubert Lounge, three musical styles converge: Buene’s own recontextualising versions of Schubert’s songs, Festervoll Melien and Tora Augestad’s interpretations of Buene’s new music based on excerpts of Schubert’s diaries, and their very personal interpretations of Schubert’s songs.

The musicians of Oslo Sinfonietta navigate between the worlds of pop music and contemporary music. Since Buene’s debut 20 years ago, the ensemble has been an important channel for his music. This is the first project they actually share a stage together as performers.

Audience in both Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Harstad and Tromsø have already experienced Schubert Lounge. Now, the opportunity has come for the people in Oslo!

Halvor F. Melien

(baritone) is one of Scandinavia’s leading interpreters of 20th and 21st-century music and a much sought-after concert and opera singer, appearing extensively throughout Europe.

Tora Augestad

has become a regular guest in the opera houses, concert halls, and theaters of her native Norway as well as in other parts of Europe, sharing the podium with musical partners such as the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Oslo Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contrechamps, and the Klangforum Wien and Remix Ensemble. 

Eivind Buene

Composer Eivind Buene has worked with a wide array of European ensembles and orchestras, and also engages in collaborations with improvising musicians, investigating liminal states between notation and other organizing principles of music. In 2010, Buene’s first novel was published, and he has since published two novels and a collection of essays on music and literature. Buene is assistant professor in composition at the Norwegian Academy of Music.