Tabita Berglund

Conductor

Home
Reviews
Features

Principal Guest Conductor (from 2021/22): Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra

Tabita Berglund is rapidly establishing herself as one of the most exciting, talented young conductors on the European circuit. Recently appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra (effective from the 21/22 season), following her debut engagement with them in 2020, she was the 2018 – 20 star of the Talent Norway programme and is a past recipient of the Gstaad Conducting Academy’s Neeme Järvi Prize (2018).

Engagements in 2019/20 included five concerts with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, four concerts with the Hallé Orchestra, a full-length production of The Nutcracker with the Arctic Philharmonic, and a return to the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. The latter two appearances were as part of Opptakt, a launch programme which nurtures young conducting talent in Norway and under which Berglund first performed with the Orchestra of the Norwegian National Opera (together with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes) in 2019.

The 2020/21 season builds on the success of 2019/20 and features many important engagements, including Nordic debuts with the Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony and Kristiansand Symphony orchestras. Berglund also appears for the first time with the Dresdner Philharmonie, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, among others. In 2021 she returns to the Hallé and Norwegian Radio orchestras.

The ever-changing nature which surrounds her hometown in the Norwegian mountains is an inspiring influence on Berglund, and this together with other artistic and musical issues plays an important role in her programming. The inherent connection between the art of leadership and the role of a conductor is also something to which Berglund attaches particular importance: “The goal is to become a conductor whom I would have wanted to play under myself.”

Berglund graduated in 2019 from the Orchestral Conducting Masters course at the Norwegian Academy of Music, where she studied under Professor Ole Kristian Ruud. She originally trained as a cellist and studied to Master’s degree level under Truls Mørk, performing regularly with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic orchestras as well as the Trondheim Soloists before conducting became her main focus in 2015. She has previously participated in masterclasses with Bernard Haitink, Jorma Panula and Jaap van Zweden, as well as a BBC Philharmonic workshop in September 2018.

Tabita Berglund - Talent Norge promotional video / with Leif Ove Andsnes and the Norwegian National Opera Orchestra © Talent Norge

Tabita Berglund – Wagner (Tristan Prelude) & Sibelius (Symphony 7), Norwegian Radio Orchestra © NRK. Made by students at the INN University

“… at the helm here was the young Norwegian conductor Tabita Berglund, whose unfussy interpretation held poise and vigour. This is her second appearance with the Hallé, and her smiling warmth matched the Idyll’s radiance perfectly. The boundless energy that underpins her approach was best suited to the Beethoven that closed the concert. […] There was room for a rich Allegretto, too, in as athletic a Seventh as you’ll hear, leaving an appreciative if reduced Manchester audience invigorated.”

(Hugh Morris, The Guardian, June 2021)

“(Berglund is) very capable of taking an orchestra with her in her ideas of how music should sound: she smiles encouragingly at the players a lot and makes constant eye contact […] She exudes confidence, and so does her music-making.”

(Robert Beale, The Art Desk, June 2021)

“We take advantage of the somewhat disconcerting habit of giving hurricanes personal names to sum up the experience of what it means to see Tabita Berglund direct. Only, in this case, the metaphor alludes only to her overwhelming momentum and energy, without any of the negative connotations […] The result [in Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony] was forceful and jovial, brilliant but without being strident or tiresome […] The orchestra let itself be carried away and excelled at an extraordinary level of virtuosity and good sound. If the reports of the time detail that at its premiere the symphony was applauded to ecstasy, here the audience was able to renew their amazement and enthusiastic ovation.”

(José Manuel Ruiz Martínez, Scherzo, April 2021)

“Berglund led the four dozen or so [Royal Scottish National Orchestra] musicians with confidence, masterful direction, and expressions of pleasure and encouragement. Conducting with a baton, she has a very vigorous style, moving her arms energetically in conspicuous arcs. This works well in electrifying the orchestra as she transforms individual passages into a cohesive musical unity. In the physically smaller orchestra, the woodwinds and brass could have easily over-shadowed the strings, but Berglund never let the balance tip too far in their favour.”

(Linda Holt, Bachtrack, November 2020)

“[But] Tabita Berglund managed to give this relatively heavy work new life! Powerful string sound, beautiful woodwind solos, shiny brass instruments […] Certain passages were actually reminiscent of film music, and the experience was completely different compared to hearing the work through the speakers at home – a feat of the young conductor!”

(Fædrelandsvennen, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, September 2020)