Anna Berg nominated for the 2026 TONO Award

TONO has recently launched the new TONO Award, in which the long-standing EDVARD Award continues as a single category among several. Three new categories have also been added: the Newcomer Award, the Value Creator Award, and the Honorary Award.

In 2025, Anna Berg served as the resident composer at Kode, leaving her mark on the institution's concerts and events throughout the year. A significant contribution was the composition of a commissioned work for the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Nuances of Water.

Bergens Tidende critic Maja Skanding was enthusiastic about Berg’s new work, writing: "The opening of Berg’s work Nuances of Water is reminiscent of a fanfare. A pattern is immediately established across all instrument groups, repetitions featuring slight variations. The orchestral sound is dense, with most instruments active and few pauses. The music pushes rapidly forward, driven by strong momentum and moving in multiple directions. Would the association with water have arisen had we not known beforehand that this was the composer’s intention? I actually think so. Berg has succeeded in creating a soundscape that evokes a sense of flow, droplets, trickling water, and surging floods. At times, it is insistent and overwhelming. … Kode’s resident composer program is a commendable initiative for promoting new Norwegian music" (Bergens Tidende, November 17, 2025).

The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Dima Slobodeniuk, also performed Berg’s work to critical acclaim during two tour concerts, at the Opéra Dijon and the Théâtre Ledoux in Besançon, as well as at Grieghallen on September 24, conducted by Rasmus Hella Mikkelsen.

We also congratulate Harpreet Bansal, a board member of Musikkselskapet Harmonien, on her nomination for the TONO Edvard Prize for the work States of Mind!

Text: Henning Målsnes