Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Founded in 1765, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s oldest orchestras.
Composer Edvard Grieg had a close relationship with the orchestra and was Artistic Director from 1880-82. Edward Gardner became the Orchestra’s Chief Conductor in October 2015, succeeding Andrew Litton, and closed his highly successful tenure at the end of the 2023-24 season.
Recent tours saw the Bergen Philharmonic and Gardner perform in venues including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and a return to the UK for concerts at the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms.
Each season, selected BPO concerts are livestreamed for free on the orchestra’s Bergenphilive platform, and remain available through the website’s archive; the initiative’s reach dramatically expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing audiences worldwide to enjoy live performances online.
Gardner and the Orchestra were awarded the Gramophone Opera Recording of the Year and Recording of the Year 2021 for their recording of Britten’s Peter Grimes. In 2025 the orchestra was awarded Gramophone Orchestra of the Year.
Chief Conductor Designate Tabita Berglund
Tabita Berglund has established herself as one of the most in-demand conductors of her generation. With a charismatic style that combines elegance, verve and precision – eliciting “exceptional music-making” (The Arts Desk) – she collaborates with leading orchestras worldwide. Berglund is Principal Guest Conductor of both Detroit Symphony Orchestra (from the 2024/25 season) and Dresdner Philharmonie (from 2025/26), having been appointed to each position following her respective debut. She served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra from 2021 to 2024, her first titled appointment. Berglund made her UK debut with the Hallé Orchestra in 2019 and her first commercial recording in 2021, an album of works by Bruch, Barber and Vaughan Williams with the Oslo Philharmonic and violinist Sonoko Miriam Welde.
Tabita Berglund’s international status has been reinforced by recent/upcoming guest engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, among others. She regularly collaborates with leading international soloists, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Hélène Grimaud, Pekka Kuusisto, Leila Josefowicz, Leif Ove Andsnes, Augustin Hadelich, Truls Mørk and Kirill Gerstein, to name a few. She has previously conducted Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for Garsington Opera and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker for the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet.
Tabita Berglund studied cello at the Trondheim Conservatory of Music and subsequently enrolled at the Norwegian Academy of Music to study with the Bergen-born cellist Truls Mørk. Having completed a master’s degree in cello and performing often as a deputy with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestras and Trondheim Soloists, she began a second master’s degree in conducting in 2017. The following year she was selected to join Dirigentløftet, the pioneering training programme created by Talent Norge (‘Talent Norway’) to strengthen Norway’s national level of conductors. As a participant in Talent Norge’s Opptakt scheme, backed by government and matched private-sector funding, she undertook guest conducting engagements with, among others, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet.
Principal Guest Conductor Sir Mark Elder
Sir Mark Elder was Music Director of the Hallé from September 2000 until spring 2024, and became Principal Guest Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2022 for three years. His engagement is prolonged to August 2027. He was Music Director of English National Opera (1979-1993), Principal Guest Conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1992 – 1995) and Music Director of Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, USA (1989 – 1994). He has held positions as Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.
Sir Mark Elder took the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on an international tour to Salzburg, Nuremberg, Coesfeld, Mannheim and Eindhoven spring 2025.
Artistic Partner Jan Willem de Vriend
Jan Willem de Vriend (photo: Marco Borggreve) is Principal Conductor of the Wiener KammerOrchester, Principal Guest conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor designate of the City of Kyoto Symphony Orchestra. He makes regular guest appearances with such ensembles as the Belgian National, Bergen Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, HR-Sinfonieorchester, Melbourne Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Warsaw Philharmonic and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony.
De Vriend first established an international reputation as artistic director of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, which he established in 1982 and led from the violin until 2015. In the field of opera, de Vriend and Combattimento Consort Amsterdam gave performances, of works by Monteverdi, Haydn, Handel, Telemann, and J.S. Bach all in stagings by the director Eva Buchmann. Operas by such composers as Mozart, Verdi and Cherubini featured in his seasons with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, again directed by Eva Buchmann. De Vriend has also conducted opera in Amsterdam (Nederlandse Reisopera), Barcelona, Strasbourg, Luzern, Schwetzingen and Bergen.
In the Netherlands he has presented several television series, and in 2012 he received a prize from the national station NPO Radio 4 for his creative contribution to classical music.
De Vriend, the orchestra and pianist Dejan Lazic are currently involved in a recording project involving a series of Mozart piano concertos.
Honorary Conductor Edward Gardner
Edward Gardner is the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra's Honorary Conductor, following his tenure as Chief Conductor from 2015 to 2024.
Edward Gardner took over the baton from Andrew Litton at the Bergen Philharmonic's 250 Years Anniversary Concert in October 2015. In his nine years as Chief Conductor he devoted himself to the orchestra and has been the prime force in further developing the artistic quality of the orchestra.
Every time we say goodbye – Edward Gardner talks to John Allison
He has taken the orchestra on eleven international tours with a total of 47 concerts in venues/festivals like BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Royal Festival Hall London, Konzerthaus Berlin, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
Edward Gardner and the Orchestra have released a series of recordings: orchestral works by Janáček, including a Grammy-nominated recording of his Glagolitic Mass, Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder, songs by Sibelius, Grieg’s Piano Concerto and Incidental music to Peer Gynt, featuring Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Ann-Helen Moen and Lise Davidsen, Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra and Rhapsodies with James Ehnes, Bartóks Bluebeard’s Castle, Brahms symphonies Nos 1 and 3, Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Pelleas und Melisande, Britten’s Peter Grimes with Stuart Skelton and Erin Wall, songs by Britten and Canteloube with soprano Mari Eriksmoen, a cd with saxophonist Marius Neset, The Tempest by Arne Nordheim and a cd with Carl Nielsen’s Violin Concerto (James Ehnes) and Symphony No. 4.
The recording of Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes was awarded Gramophone Recording of the Year Award and Opera Recording of the Year Award.
Assistant Conductor Rasmus Hella Mikkelsen
Rasmus’ position as Assistant Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra will include
his debut with the orchestra in the autumn of 2025, as well as several performances
throughout the season. He will also make his debut with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the
Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera and the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in 2025
– 2026. Rasmus has previously been engaged as assistant conductor a number of times,
including with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. He
has performed at the Bergen International Festival on several occasions, most recently in May
2025 at this year’s festival.
Rasmus is currently a participant in Talent Norway’s Dirigentforum, the elite programme of
Dirigentløftet. Through this initiative, he has the opportunity to conduct orchestras such as the
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Trondheim
Symphony Orchestra, in masterclasses with prominent international conductors, such as
Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. He has also participated in several masterclasses with
Jorma Panula.
Rasmus has received his conducting education through various programmes at the Barratt
Due Institute of Music, where he studied under the mentorship of Alf Årdal and Eivind
Aadland. He has a Bachelor of Music Performance from the Barratt Due Institute of Music,
where he studied with Stephan Barratt-Due, and a Master of Music Performance from the
Norwegian Academy of Music, where he studied with professor Elise Båtnes, concertmaster
of the Oslo Philharmonic. From 2022 to 2024, Rasmus held an internship with the Oslo
Philharmonic as a violinist.
Originally from Bergen, Rasmus began playing the violin at Bergen Kulturskole, and later
continued his studies at Langhaugen Upper Secondary School, with Per Gisle Haagenrud as
his teacher. He was also a violinist in the Bergen Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
Photo: Nikolaj Lund