Anders Beyer continues as festival director

'This spring, festival director Anders Beyer chose to step up in a difficult situation, thereby creating a digital festival of high quality that also reached a wide audience. The board is very impressed by what the Festival, with Beyer as the main driving force, achieved in such a short time,' says chairman of the board, Thorhild Widvey.

After the original programme for the 2020 Bergen International Festival had to be cancelled in April due to the Norwegian government's COVID-19 restrictions, festival director Anders Beyer launched a new and digital festival with 60 different programme events.

'Cultural life all around the world is still in a difficult situation. The board has high ambitions for the Festival in years to come, and so as to ensure long-term continuity finds it appropriate to extend Anders Beyer's tenure until the 2026 Festival,' says Widvey.

Anders Beyer took over as festival director in August 2012. This is the second time the board of the Bergen International Festival has extended his term, and he is the festival's longest-serving director.

‘I am proud and humbled that the board has wanted me to be at the forefront of development in the years ahead, through an extension of the tenure until 2026,' says Anders Beyer.

Next year's festival opens on Wednesday 26 May 2021, and the festival director is currently working on various festival scenarios which take into account how the COVID-19 situation may develop.

'The festival has a fantastic staff with dedicated employees who are passionate about seeing new opportunities for art and culture in a rapidly changing world. In the coming years, we will work purposefully together with the board to maintain and develop the Bergen International Festival's international position. I am very much looking forward to taking part in bringing this goal to life,' says Beyer.

Facts/Anders Beyer

• Born 1959 in Bornholm, Denmark

• Festival director in Bergen since August 2012

• Professor II at the University of Bergen

• Former artistic director and director of the Copenhagen Opera Festival, Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen and Athelas New Music Festival

• Former pianist, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen and music editor and critic