Research Catalogue

Njål Sparbo is one of Norway’s most active and versatile singers, with an exceptionally broad repertoire of song, oratorio and opera.

In 1997-99 and 2005-08 he received The Norwegian Government Grant for Artists in to work with Norwegian, German and Russian art song traditions. In 2009-2014 he worked as a research fellow at The Oslo National Academy of the Arts in The Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme with the project «Singing on the Stage - with a Psychophysical Approach», combining contemporary aesthetics with central issues from the Norwegian psychomotor therapy tradition.

In 2014-15 he was a member of the research group «The Reflective Musician - Interpretation as Co-Creative Process» at The National Academy of Music in Oslo in The Norwegian Artistic Research Project Programme, investigating creative boundaries when performing notated music.

2017-2020 he worked in a research group at the Grieg Academy at the University in Bergen with the project (Un-)settling Sites and Styles - in Search of Expressive Means, combining sonology with Geirr Tveitt's music theory of modal scales, leading to "sonotial interpretations" of Tveitt's songs.

Sparbo has been awarded the Kirsten Flagstad Prize, the Ingrid Bjoner Prize, and in 2009 he received the Grieg Prize for his contribution to renew the musical interpretation tradition of Grieg’s songs by bringing forth the dramatical essence after performances all of Edvard Grieg’s 172 songs in a series of 7 concerts in Bergen in conjunction with Grieg's 100th year commemoration. He performs regularly at festivals and on television and radio, and he has participated in 32 CD recordings. His solo engagements include all the major Norwegian choirs and orchestras and The Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. He is to be heard performing at venues all over Europe, including Russia, USA, South Korea and Japan.

Further information at sparbo.com