Amalie Stalheim with young string players

Festival Academy of Bergen

Classical Link

Cellist Amalie Stalheim is known for her intense musicality, bold artistry and compelling stage presence. As part of the mentoring programme Classical Link, she is as passionate about the great legacy of classical music as she is about commissioning new works and supporting young talent. 

At Bergen’s Det Vestnorske Teateret, Stalheim leads an ensemble of talented young string players – violinists Phelan Walker and Olga Melby Larsson, Philemon Hahn on the viola, and Clara Yuna Friedensburg on the cello – in an exploration of the sound worlds of three talented young composers mentored by Ørjan Matre. 

Miłosz Krawczyk is a Swedish-Polish composer and winner of First Prize at the at Dante 700 International Competition for Symphonic Composition. His music draws from sacred traditions, folk influences, and Eastern European modernism. 

Yuto Obata is a Japanese composer based in Helsinki whose music aims to expand the sonic possibilities of acoustic instruments in the creation of a unique sonority. 

Julia Constance Wiger-Nordås is a Bergen-based composer and flautist whose handwritten scores for acoustic instruments set out to explore varied dimensional concepts and ‘touch the transcendent’. 

Join some of Norway’s most promising young string players in this Festival Academy concert, which is an occasion to get to know the artists of the future. Clara Yuna Friedensburg will also give a concert with pianist Ole Christian Haagenrud at Gamlehaugen, and Olga Melby Larsson is also featured both in a concert at Gamlehaugen and as a soloist with BIT20 Ensemble in Korskirken. 

Top image: Amalie Stalheim with young string players at the 2025 Festival. Photo: Thor Brødreskift

Supported by

Contributors

• Amalie Stalheim mentor, cello

• Phelan Walker violin

• Olga Melby Larsson violin

• Philemon Hahn viola

• Clara Yuna Friedensburg cello

• Ørjan Matre mentor, composer

• Miłosz Krawczyk composer

• Yuto Obata composer

• Julia Constance Wiger composer

Works

• Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
  From String Quartet in F major
  1. Allegro moderato – Très doux

• World premiere (title to be announced)

• Sarah Kirkland Snider (1973–)
  Drink the Air

• World premiere (title to be announced)

• Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805–1847)
  From String Quartet in E flat major
  2. Allegretto

• World premiere (title to be announced)

• Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
  From String Quintet in C major, D. 956
  3. Scherzo: Presto – Trio: Andante sostenuto