The soprano Cathrine Bothner-By works mainly within early music, be it French baroque airs, gregorian chant, 18th century songs or high renaissance madrigals. She is especially interested in space and sound, texts and the shaping of emotions in different languages or styles, and recently «small music» in 17th and 18th century Scandinavian sources.
She studied early music singing at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen with Maria Cristina Kiehr and the Norwegian National Academy of Music with Mona Julsrud, vocale ensemble at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and gregorian chant with the Choeur Gregorien de Paris at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. She also studied architecture at the Oslo School of Architecture and Musicology and Philosophy at the University of Oslo.
Cathrine has worked in numerous chamber music productions at home and abroad, and in staged productions for theatre companies in Norway, the Cultural Rucksack art in school programme and various projects in Norway and Germany. She works regularly with Ensemble 1704 and Modus ensemble, and is a founding member of Barokk Boreal with folk musicians Øyonn Groven Myhren and Vegar Vårdal and lutenist Ulrik G. Larsen, the vocal ensemble Calliophon, and early music collective L’Etat Libre de Neige.
Ulrik Gaston Larsen has studied historical guitars at the Norwegian State Academy of Music and lutes with Prof. Rolf Lislevand in the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen, Germany. Recently he was invited to participate in the recording of Rolf Lislevand and Ensemble Kapsberger’s production, «La Chittara Spostate»- ASTRÈE / N A Ï V E , currently in post-production, with whom he gives concerts regularly, and can also be heard on ensemble «La Chapelle Rhénane’s» cd with music from Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672) «Histoire de la Résurrection & Musikalische Exequien» – K617 / Harmonia Mundi, which won the following prizes in France: Diapason D’or, Le Monde de la Musique and a Goldberg 5.
For many years he has been working as a continuo player, in both large scale productions (Calisto from Cavalli, L’incoronazione di Poppea from Monteverdi, Giulio Cesare from Händel), as well as in smaller chamber music contexts with ensembles such as Ensemble Kapsberger, Ensemble Correspondances and teaching and giving master classes in Europe and in South America, and of course gathering extensive experience as a soloist.
Having obtained a masters degree in harpsichord from the Norwegian Academy of Music, a masters degree in early music from the Royal Danish Academy of Music, ‘storfag’ in musicology from the University of Oslo, with ERASMUS exchange periods at Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen and Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, Lars Henrik Johansen is currently working as a freelance harpsichordist. He has played with most norwegian baroque and classical orchestras and a lot of chamber music projects; played concerts in the Nordic and Baltic countries, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Malta, Brazil and USA; contributed on a dozen recordings; taught at the University of Oslo, at the Norwegian Academy of Music, and at the Academy of Opera in Oslo; conducted several norwegian orchestras; and is the musical director of Ensemble 1704 and L’État Libre de Neige.
L'État Libre de Neige 