Tora Augestad
Tora's versatility inspires composers, directors and conductors. With compositions commissioned by her and in her various ensembles, she is always looking for artistic exchange and new challenges. In doing so, she knows how to convince acting and wisely use her vocal skills, which are beyond the scope of common vocal subjects.

Born in Bergen in 1979, the singer and actress studied both classical music and jazz singing and has since devoted herself to the repertoire of Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, Luciano Berio, Arnold Schönberg and contemporary composers. She has given concerts with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Ensemble Modern, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Klangforum Wien, as well as with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, which also devoted a whole portrait CD recording to her.

Her collaboration with the Swiss director Christoph Marthaler, which began in 2010 with the world premiere of Beat Furrer's Wüstenbuch in Basel, has become a constant element in her artistic life. She has been a global guest with his productions and made her debut at the Ruhrtriennale in 2018 with the large-scale work Universe, Incomplete - a tribute to Charles Ives. At the beginning of the 2019/20 season, Tora Augestad made her debut as Mary Lou in Abraham's operetta Märchen im Grandhotel am Theater Luzern. She has toured extendedly with Marthaler production King Size, in more than 35 cities worldwide. With Marthalers, Bekannte Gefühle, gemischte Gesichter she has been at the Festival d’Automne in Paris and guested Moscow, Oslo and Montpellier. From 2014 - 2019 she was a regular guest at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg platz.

Her CD Portraying Passion (LAWO Classics, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra) with works by Weill, Ives and Paus, published in autumn 2018, was nominated for the German Record Critics' Prize and was voted Star / CD of the Month by Fono Forum and Opernwelt magazine, as well as receiving the Spellemannprisen, the Norwegian counterpart to the US Grammy. Tora Augestad was Artistic Director of the Hardanger Music Festival in Norway from 2015-2020, leading altogether 6 festivals. In 2015 she was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize, the most important cultural award in Scandinavia, and in 2018 was honored as Performer of the Year by the Norwegian Composers Society.

She founded her band Music for a while in 2004, with some of the most versatile musicians on the Norwegian scene. Their 4th studioalbum is to be released in the autumn of 2021. A long time collaborator is the Norwegian composer and saxophonist Trygve Seim, who composed Rumi Songs for her.

Among her future bookings one can mention an opera production with Christoph Marthaler in Zürich in 2022, and Reinbert de Leeuws»Im wunderschönen Monat Mai" with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra at the opening of the new Munch Museum Oslo, a new cd with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra with music by Henrik Hellstenius as well as a new grand piece by Philippe Manoury.

”Tora Augestad is far more than an academically trained singer. She lives and suffers through her songs, taking her vocal and theatrical capabilities to the max.” Mitteldeutsche Zeitung