Nils Økland
Biography Nils Økland
Nils Økland
was born in Haugesund in 1961. He attended the Rogaland Music Conservatory and the Norwegian State Academy of Music, where he studied violin with Terje Tønnesen. He also studied Hardanger fiddle with Knut Hamre and Sigbjørn Bernhoft Osa. A scholarship took him to the Budapest Academy, and in Amsterdam he studied the music of Biber with Jan Willem de Vriend. He was musical director of the Ole Bull Academy (named after the 19th-century Norwegian violinist-composer) in Voss for six years.
Sigbjørn Apeland
born in 1966, was raised in Sveio. He collaborates with musicians within a wide range of genres, especially church music, Norwegian folk music, electronics and improvised music. As an academic, Apeland has been teaching, supervising and writing within the fields of musicology, cultural studies, church music, theology and folklore studies. A member of the Musicology Research Group at the Grieg Academy, he has also extensive experience as a folk music collector, primarily focused on material from Western Norway. In addition to his ongoing collaboration with Nils Økland, Sigbjørn Apeland performs often with singer Berit Opheim, including the recent album Velsigna Er Dagen, recorded at Voss church.
