SOPHIE HAAGEN

SOPHIE HAAGEN

Léonie Sonning Talent Prize 2021 When Sophie debuted as a mezzo-soprano on the opera scene at the Royal Danish Theatre on Holmen, it was not as part of a classic by Mozart or Puccini. It was, in fact, a recent operatic interpretation of Janne Teller’s youth novel Intet, where Sophie sang one of the leading…

KATINKA FOGH VINDELEV

KATINKA FOGH VINDELEV

Léonie Sonning Talent Prize 2021 Katinka does not come from a home filled with classical music. She does, however, come from a home full of sing-song. Her parents taught music and also started a private independent school at home in Himmerland where Katinka and her three siblings made up about 10% of the pupils. Here…

NOVO QUARTET

NOVO QUARTET

Léonie Sonning Talent Prize 2021 When Nikolai Vasili Nedergaard started his violin studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen in his late teens, he had no idea that already two years later he would be able to look back on concert trips to China, The Netherlands and around Scandinavia as well as…

MIKKEL SCHOU

MIKKEL SCHOU

Léonie Sonning Talent Prize 2021 Mikkel started playing the guitar by coincidence. In his childhood home in northern Zealand there was a piano and a cheap guitar from a holiday to Spain, and in the end the guitar seemed most appealing after school hours. He probably thought he would end up making a living as…

MAGNUS LARSSON

MAGNUS LARSSON

Léonie Sonning Talent Prize 2021 What do you do when both your piano and your violin teacher tell you to quit the other instrument? You choose both by choosing a third. That is what Magnus did when he decided to become a conductor. It was the perfect way to utilise his skills on both instruments….

Josefine Opsahl

Josefine Opsahl

Léonie Sonning Talent Prize 2021 It was Josefine’s mother who taught her to walk, to make her own decisions, to follow her heart and fight for it. When she was young she gave up her career as an accordionist and studied law instead. However, she did return to music later and today makes a living…

Britta Cortabarria adde

Britta Cortabarria adde

Léonie Sonning Talent Prize 2021 You could say that Britta is the result of a summer fling in the streets of Madrid long ago. On a train journey around Spain, Britta’s Swedish mother spotted the Argentinian-born street musician, who would later become Britta’s father. The romance was unavoidable. As a child, Britta was mainly interested…

ASBJØRN DALBJERG

ASBJØRN DALBJERG

Léonie Sonning Talent Prize 2021 “It is much more important who is the music teacher in Kisvarda than who is the director of the opera house in Budapest. A poor director fails once, but a poor teacher risks killing the love of music in 30 generations of children.” Something along those lines was expressed by…