Photo: Charlotte Wiig
Areas of Expertise
Music history, music and society, Norwegian and Nordic classical and contemporary music, singing.
Biography
Astrid Kvalbein has been the Principal of the Norwegian Academy of Music since August 2021, initially alongside Eyolf Dale and later Morten Qvenild as Deputy Principal. Together with the rest of the leadership team – which also includes Vice-Principal for Education Vivianne Sydnes – she has worked towards uniting and listening to students and staff, with exchange and development as key goals.
She has led the Norwegian Academy of Music through its anniversary year, 2023–2024, which included challenging financial restructuring and the development of a new strategy leading up to 2035.
From 2024, the Academy has taken a leadership role in the European university alliance IN.TUNE.
Astrid has a background as a singer, freelance writer, and researcher, with a master's degree in music education (1998) and a doctorate in historical and contemporary performance practices (2013) from the Norwegian Academy of Music. Her PhD research focused on the composer, critic, and founder of the New Music Association, Pauline Hall. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, Astrid studied the composer Fartein Valen.
Kvalbein has also worked for many years as a critic of classical and contemporary music for Aftenposten, Dagsavisen, and VG. Both as a researcher and performer, she has particularly focused on modern Norwegian and Nordic music (and its history). She has a background in the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, the genre-crossing jazz ensemble SØYR, and has premiered numerous works by Norwegian composers.
Publications
- Blåste i reisene og kuttet utgiftene med en femtedel 2024
- Still Exceptional? Women in Composition Approaching the Twenty-First Century 2021
- In the Absence of the Avant-Garde - Atonality, Satire and De-Romanticisation in the Musical Life of Norway 2019
- Hagearbeid - med saks og stemmegaffel, klaffer, pust og svette 2019
- Wood or Blood? New scores and new sounds for voice and clarinet. 2019
- Tonar, tekst og teljekantar 2019
- Institutionalizing contemporary music in Norway: From Pauline Hall to the Ultima festival 2018
- Forever Exceptional? On women who compose music 2018
- Seleksjon og lederskap i populærmusikken og samtidsmusikken 2018
- Pauline Hall - apotekerdatter og Ny Musikk-general 2018
