Sigurd Slåttebrekk is Professor PhD at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Sigurd Slåttebrekk has over the years developed a broad field of expertise, through extensive concert activity and recordings earlier in his career, as well as research in historical performance practice, in parallel with the development of content for family audiences—particularly within the field of music in recent years.
Slåttebrekk's award-winning recordings with piano music by Maurice Ravel (chasingthebutterfly.no), Robert Schumann and Edvard Grieg have given him much international acclaim. In 2022, the Gramophone Magazine ranked his 2005 recording of Grieg's Piano Concerto as the best ever of this frequently recorded concerto.
Slåttebrekk's particular interest is romantic performance practice, as documented in early recording history. In Slåttebrekk's research project and publication Chasing the Butterfly(chasingthebutterfly.no), he undertook a systematic re-creation of Edvard Grieg's nine recordings from 1903 in a completely new approach to historical performance practice. This research method later became the foundation of several PhD projects internationally and marked the starting point of a new field of performance-based research at NMH.
Slåttebrekk’s latest research project will be published in 2026 as part of the book The Performer’s Lived Experiences (Routledge). His contribution, titled Schubert on a Slackline, explores how early recording history can provide insights and serve as an artistic resource for performing repertoire from even earlier periods.
In his outreach work aimed at children and families, Slåttebrekk has sought, as a creator and producer, to reach ever-new audiences with music of the highest quality. This involves innovative multimedia productions for stage and film, and most recently a theme-park experience. In 2024, The Music Factory theme-park experience at Hunderfossen Family Park won the THEA Award for the world’s best themed attraction in the budget category under 100 million NOK.