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We invite you to enjoy 4 days of organ music in Stavanger and surrounding areas!

The Norwegian Organ Festival offers an extensive programme including concerts, performances, master class, organ tours, youth organ course, festival church services and more. The festival is presenting the wide variety of organ music, from church music, classical, folk and contemporary. At Norway’s longest living organ festival there are possibilities for everyone to find something to their taste. Welcome! 

The main objective of The Norwegian Organ Festival is to promote organ music traditions and to create awareness about the rich cultural heritage of church music. At the same time it is important to us to facilitate the creation of new music and art and we therefore present exciting contemporary organ music. At the Norwegian Organ Festival you therefore get to experience both familiar and new material. We hope that you will enjoy the programme, find inspiration and also be challenged. 

Background

The Norwegian Organ Festival was established in 1990 and is today run in association of the Church of Stavanger. The festival is managed by a festival board, artistic board and managing director.

Originally the festival was established as a collaboration between the City Council of Karmøy, the Rogaland Music Concervatory (which is now the University of Stavanger) and the Church of Karmøy. After the first ten years the festival saw opportunities to develop further and to reach out to a broader audience. In 2000 the festival was moved to the Stavanger region through a collaboration with the College of Stavanger (now University of Stavanger), the Rogaland Music Conservatory,  the City Council of Karmøy and the Church of Karmøy. It was to be held on a biannual basis alternating between Karmøy and Stavanger. In 2006 this collaboration ended but the festival was continued in association with the Church of Stavanger. In 2008 the collaboration was formalised and the festival has since been held on an annual basis in Stavanger and surrounding areas. 

Over the years the festival has played an important role when it comes to contemporary composition. The festival has premiered work by for instance Nils Henrik Asheim, Bjørn Kruse and Ole Karsten Sundlisæter. We are also proud to have had internationally renowned organists such as Susan Landale, Olivier Latry, Harald Vogel, Paolo Criellaro, Simon Preston, Edoardo Bellotti and Scott Brothers Duo on the festival programme.