Trondheim Symphony Orchestra

Over more than a century the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra has steadily widened its activities, giving rise to an opera company, a musical-theater wing, and a chamber orchestra while administering its own Princess Astrid Music Award competition and anchoring much of the concert life in central Norway. Its extensive discography spans both Scandinavian and international labels, among them the 2024 CPO release Hjalmar Borgstrøm: Symphonic Poems.

The ensemble originated with an amateur circle conducted by Morten Svendsen, whose players presented their first program in 1909 inside Trondheim’s Masonic Lodge—the building that served as their principal home until Olavshallen opened in 1989. Svendsen remained in charge until 1922; among his notable successors were Håkon Hoem, who led the group from 1930 to 1946, and Finn Audun Oftedal, who took the podium from 1950 to 1981. Increased public support arrived during the 1930s, and full-time professional status was achieved in 1947. After World War II the Trondheim Chamber Orchestra was formed, and in 1952 the symphony itself inaugurated the Princess Astrid Music Award, which continues on a biennial schedule.

Finn Audun Oftedal (1950–1981), Jiri Starek (1981–1984—the orchestra’s first conductor from outside Norway), Ole Kristian Ruud (1987–1995, under whom an early digital recording of symphonies by Johan Halvorsen was made), Daniel Harding (1997–2000), Eivind Aadland (2003–2010), and Krzysztof Urbanski (2010–2017) all held the post before Han-Na Chang became the ensemble’s first female chief conductor in 2017, a position she continued to hold into the mid-2020s. Today the orchestra comprises eighty-five musicians and presents approximately one hundred concerts annually, most of them at Olavshallen, while also serving as the resident orchestra of the Trondheim Opera. Its recordings have appeared on Norwegian imprints such as Simax and 2L as well as on foreign labels including Sweden’s BIS, Germany’s CPO, and Britain’s Virgin Classics, with a consistent emphasis on Norwegian composers; that focus was reaffirmed by the 2024 CPO album Hjalmar Borgstrøm: Symphonic Poems.