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Tuva Halse (born 1999 in Molde, Norway) is an instrumentalist, composer, and arranger known for her lyrical jazz improvisations on violin, her refined melodic compositions, and as a founding member of the Fjordgata label.

Instruments played
Tuva Halse is mainly a violonist. She learned piano and uses it as a working instrument, preferring a synthesizer (Yamaha Reface CS) on stage with the tuvahalseband, where she is a vocalist too. She also learned guitar, which she played on stage before becomng a professional musician clarify and ref. percs?

Biography
Tuva Karen Halse was born in Molde in 1999. Her mother, Lise Lillebrygfjeld Halse, is a philosopher and Professor of innovation and technology at Molde University College. 'Father, brother? Other details?' Tuva is interested in sport and music early. The Moldejazz festival, one of the oldest in Europe, is a significant event in the cultural life of Molde which she attends every year. Together with a favourable family environment, it certainly plays a role in her musical development. She starts learning classical music at the age of 7 Is it piano at 7 and violin at 8 ?. She turns to jazz violin after her piano teacher since the age of 13, Arne Torvik no quotable page?, introduces her to jazz, suggests her to use violin for this, and attracts her attention to the music of Mathias Eick. Listening to Ola Kvernberg playing The Mechanical Fair at Moldejazz in 2016, a suite of jazz pieces played by a jazz octet led by Kvernberg and large classical ensemble including soloists from Trondheim (released by Jazzland Records in 2014) is also a decisive experience which initiated her interest in jazz music, and showing the diversity of ways violin can be used. This live performance of key importance in Halse's musical evolution was also captured and officially released. Was the decision made before listening to Brothers in 2017  ?

Tuva Halse studies at the Bekkevoll Junior High School in 2012. In 2013, Tuva is (since when?) a player (as what?) of the Molde Football Club, and as such, participates on August 3 that year to the finale of the Norway Cup in the category of girls of age 14 (J14) in a 11-a-side configuration against the Ullensaker Girls. Ullensaker wins 1-0 against Molde, resulting in a Silver Cup for Molde. On September 25, however, the Molde J14 team, again including Tuva, wins the Møre and Romsdal district football championship (kretsmestre) 4-0 against Sunndal. Tuva Halse also performs martial arts while a teenager (ref? ). At that time, Tuva considers to quit playing violin and piano to pursue her dream of becoming a football player, an idea that her parents discourage her to put into effect. Although unrelated in appearance, the taste of Tuva Halse for sport and music may be understood as a will to self-transcendence. In May 2014, at the age of 15, she plays with the Romsdal orchestra at the Church of Aukra (May 24) add ref: is there anything there?, and the day after at the cathedral of Molde ref. The same year and in 2015, she is seen on stage playing guitar with two junior high school mates confirm, Ingrid Vingen Sunde and Vilde Standal Borgen ref?.

Tuva enters the Molde High School in  2015, where she attends the music programme. Is it a distinct learning programme or an additional course? Within this framework...?, in November 2016, she plays Anton Bruckner's Romantic Symphony on violin in three concerts held at the Gjemnes Samfunnhus in Batnfjord, the Cathedral of Molde and the Nordland Cathedral in Kristiansund with the Symphony Orchestra of Kristiansund and the Orchestra of Romsdal under the direction of Stian E. Svendsen. In 2017, Tuva Halse plays violin at a chamber concert, under the direction of Ai-Ling Chiu. 'Where, which context? first violin (first on the right) ? In addition to these classical music performances, in 2016' Halse joins the Lærlingan (Apprentices), a big band of Molde high school students led by Rolf Magnus Orø, with which she plays as one of the "apprentices" in various occasions, including at Moldejazz (e.g., ), until 2019 when she joins the Jazzlinja in Trondheim, then as one of the band "Elders" (Gamlingan) until 2022.

In March 2019, while she is ending high school, she is selected (?) at the Jazzlinja, a jazz training of the Conservatory in Trondheim at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) what is the Jazzlinja in Bergen and Oslo mentioned by Orø (2019-03-21)?, which many young Norwegian jazz musicians have followed, and where she is given lessons by violonist Ola Kvernberg, who like Arne Torvik earlier, has a decisive influence on her '... musical practice? style? career?'. She enters the Jazzlinja in fall 2019, where she meets many of the musicians she will work with in the next several years.

Tuva Halse passes her Bachelor examination at NTNU in June 2022 with a graduation concert, which she plays with the Tuva Halse Quintet. After graduation, Halse pursues a career as an improviser, composer, arranger, band leader, rarely a soloist, and has been invited or selected to participate in a large number of groups in the fields of jazz, folk, pop, and contemporary music. After one year of break this is pure speculation, she pursues in 2023 and 2024 a master's degree of Music Performance correct? at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo with a master's project that connects classical music and jazz, to be again performed with the Tuva Halse Quintet.

Tuva Halse participates to the Music Students' Benefit Concert for Palestine played at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo with Leon Røsten or the group Røsten? on March 17, 2024 in support of the NORWAC NGO.

Career
Tuva Halse is a multifarious artist who simultaneously develops her own groups pursuing distinct ambitions: Bento Box, the Tuva Halse Quintet, and the tuvahalseband, and contributes to many other projects on the Norwegian scene. She met most members of her groups, and many collaborators, in 2019 at the Jazzlinja, and their musical cohesion stems from strong friendship and years of collective musical practice ref.

Style
From her list of performances, it is apparent that jike many young Norwegian jazz musicians, Tuva Halse is comfortable with a range of musical styles, such as folk and pop, in addition to jazz. However, her originality in this respect is her capability to interpret and improvise on classical and contemporary music compositions as well, and in writing arrangements for small and large musical ensembles. Halse claims a musical lineage with Adam Bałdych, and cites him as the musician who ultimately motivated her to become the musician who she is. The album Brothers, featuring Adam Bałdych and the Helge Lien Trio and Tore Brunborg and released in 2017, in particular, had a significant impact on her. Halse cites Chet Baker, Kenny Wheeler, Pat Metheny, Ola Kvernberg and Arne Torvik as other influences. She defines herself as a melancholic musician playing "mountain jazz" (in reference to an irreducible attraction for the Norwegian nature), and says that she "feels at home" in the sound of the complex Nordic jazz idiom.

The sound of her violin combines refined and lyrical, but energetic and passionate, improvisations bearing a strong classical music imprint. In this respect, her airy and evocative playing is readily reminiscent of the French classical music of the turn of the 20th century. A salient characteristics in her style was identified by Torkjell Hovland in a review of the Tuva Halse Quintet album Two, in which he insists that Halse "creates spaces in the music" and "is concerned with the energy in payses between the notes as much as the notes themselves". Her violin was described by Tor Hammerø as having a light, bright, and highly transparent tone.

Early recordings
The first music formally released by Halse is a series of 3 pieces of her own composition recorded with pianist and singer Ingrid Vingen Sunde, recorded in 2017 and released in 2018 on streaming platforms: Demring (Dawn), November, and I puste (In a Breath) check translation. This music shows the style of Halse before her jazz training at the Jazzlinja. The interpretation of these melodic pieces, already meeting professional standards, demonstrates great lyricism and the same refinement and elegance as in the post-Jazzlinja recordings. However, the influence of music from the turn of the 20th century is more pregnant, and the sound, classically graceful.

Bento Box Trio and Tuva Halse Quintet
The graduation concert of 2022 is followed by a studio session which provides some of the material of the Tuva Halse Quintet first album, Two, complemented by additional tunes composed during fall and recorded in December the same year. After graduation, the albums Boxed (Bento Box Trio) and Two (Tuva Halse Quintet) show that Halse's musical style retains its original influences while gaining additional subtlety and expressiveness. The use of rythmic pizzicato to punctuate the solos of the other musicians is new.

Nydelig (Lovely), in Boxed is an example of a piece in which the influence of the turn of the 20th century is noteworthy, and usually 'frequently? at times?' ends with a citation of the Pavane pour une infante défunte by Maurice Ravel. Draumørar (Dreamers), also in Boxed, bears influence of romantic fiddling. The appealing Park, in Boxed, as well as Nemesis, on the eponymous album, illustrate the melodious character of Halse's compositions. The music of Halse and her jazz formations is also comfortable with the principle of free improvisation and free jazz, but frequently keeps a tight, albeit cryptic, rythmical control, for instance in Halse's showpiece composition Ambivalent (in Boxed and Two). The Ambivalent version given by the Bento Box Trio at the Dølajazz Festival 2021 in Lillehammer is a good illustration. It begins with a free jazz improvisation, then transitions around the 8th minute into the disjointed puppet-like structure that characterizes the theme, and concludes three minutes later after theme full development.

tuvahalseband
Compared to the other groups, which are instrumental, vocals play a role, major, in the tuvahalseband. Vocals are sung by her, Sara Fjeldvær, and Jakob Nordli Leirvik. With Emil Storløkken Åse on electric guitar and Halse on the Yamaha Reface CS synthesizer, the tuvahalseband has an electric vibe at times reminiscent of the music played by John Abercrombie or John McLaughlin these references probably need improvement, which contrasts with the sound of her trio and quintet. The band is heard on Nemesis.

Improvisation on 20th century music
Tuva Halse performs and improvises on classical and contemporary music. In 2022 and 2023 she performs pieces from the French composers of the early 20th century Maurice Ravel what?, Claude Debussy (La Mer) and Nadia Boulanger what? with Peter Knudsen on piano and Amund Storløkken Åse on vibes. The trio also rearranges and improvises on Tōru Takemitsu's composition Toward The Sea  Only the third section or the three?. The concert given on May 13th, 2023 in Trondheim is recorded.

Compositions and arrangements
Tuva Halse has composed all most of? the music released under her own groups so far. She says that composing is something she has been doing her whole life. WWhereas her pre-Jazzlinja pieces show limited evolution of dramaturgy, the post-Jazzlinja musical pieces are more sophisticated and structured into contrasted sections showcasing a distinct atmosphere. Halse becomes increasingly concerned by arrangement writing since her debut. Boxed, released in September 2022, which was praised by the Norwegian jazz magazine Jazznytt, features an unconventional trio (with Benjamín Gísli Einarsson on piano and Øyvind Leite on drums) leaving huge space for "free roles an dopen landscapes" , but obviously, limited colour possibilities. Released on October 2023, Two adds bass guitar (Gard Kronborg) and trumpet (Oscar Andreas Haug), which makes it possible to increase the diversity and complexity of interactions between the musicians, and extend the colour palette of the group (provide an example). Also in 2023, her selection as a new member of the OJKOS orchestra provides her a platform allowing her to extend her arranger's skills to the big band format.

Chronology
Tuva Halse starts performing in jazz clubs and festivals in 2020, one year after entering Trondheim's Jazzlinja.

In 2020, owing to an unusually large number of string instrument players at Jazzlinja, all of classical music training, the idea emerges of a jazz strings formation. With three other students, including Audun Rørmark (violin), Ellie Mäkelä (viola), and Eskild Okkenhaug (bass), Halse (violin) forms the Krambua Strings (from the name of a restaurant and bar in Trondheim which offers live music performances), dedicated to jazz improvisation on standards as well as original compositions, with the ambitious objectives, according to Audun Rørmark, "to become a fully improvising string quartet able to play a version of any song everyone knows, on the spot, just like any other improvising band setup". Krambua Strings performs at the Trondheim Jazz Festival in November 2020, but appears to have stopped activities soon after.

Like in other places in the world, the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway affects the musical life of many artists in 2020 and 2021. Tuva Halse uses this time to practice, plan projects, carry out things she had postponed doing, make music, and think of the role of musicians in society beyond playing on a stage, reinforcing her ambition to make a living from music. It is at this time also that the idea of initiating the tuvahalseband was born, and for which her first lyrics are written. The pandemic times, as well as the anniversary of the identification of the Straight of Magellan sea route (1520) by Magellan also inspired correct? the 14 Jazzlinja students their band name Magellan, for which they composed the suite In Search Of. The suite was performed during their second year of studies on a successful tour with 10 dates in Norway  Halse explains that due to the pandemic, it has been natural to create a concept around traveling differently – inward and alongside the music. "Each one has created unique music based on their own desires, references, and ideas, resulting in everything from beautiful ocean waves to bustling grooves in many different variations", says Halse.

In 2021, Halse becomes a member of the Miriam Kibakaya Concept, with which she goes on tour two years later with 13 dates in Norway. She participates to Sara Fjeldvær, the debut album of Sara Fjeldvær on Fjordagata Records.

In 2022, the Bento Box Trio is a finalist of Jazzintro, a competition organized by the Norsk jazzforum. Eight jazz groups are selected among tens of/typically a hundred of applicants and compete in pairs until the finale, held at Moldejazz, which decides of the Young Jazz Musicians of the Year. The Bento Box Trio competes in April and wins against the Munch Trio. According to the jury, Bento Box impressed with "the communication between the musicians, presentation, direction, and sound. They have originality and maturity in their expression and strong compositions".

Halse starts in 2022 an intense collaborating activity in various musical contexts. She joins and starts touring with Alex Ventling's Wavemakers, a purely jazz formation. She also starts collaborating with Peter Knudsen and Amund Storløkken Åse. The trio revisits the 20th century classical and contemporary music through improvisation. Two albums see her improvising in folk and country contexts. First, she joins and tours with Røsten, one of the groups of Leon Røsten, with which I Could Even Try To Change Your Mind is recorded and released a year later. She also contributes to the Jonas Ledang album The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter on Øra Fonogram, where her very lyrical improvisations on violin give a very unusual tone to what would otherwise be a rather conventional country this is what it looks like to me music. Her sound and improvisated parts on She can't stop, in particular, have a surprisingly Indian violin improvisation flavour. Find reviews for JL

In 2023, the first album of the Tuva Halse Quintet, Two, is out. It receives positive reviews from the Norway Rock Magazine, which notes a "beautiful, atmospheric, and technically striking debut album, where the balance between improvisation and rigor seems optimal". According to the music critic Tor Hammerø, in this album Halse already possesses two outstanding musical talents: a completely unique and distinctive voice, and a story to tell. "She has the ability to draw us into her musical messages in a way that is rare for such a young musician." Hammerø also praises her musicians in the quintet, "who have understood Halse's intentions in every possible way and who make the music and message as complete as possible".

Among the other achievements of 2023 is Roots by the Miriam Kibakaya Concept, from which Halse receives a very positive review from the Norwegian jazz magazine Jazznytt. Halse's solos also contribute to the uncompromising "fascinating" jazz expression of "immediately catchy pop songs" in  We Don't Imagine Anymore, an album of drummer, multi-intrumentalist and vocalist Veslemøy Narvesen. Retrieve critics from Jazznytt 269 Winter 2024 and FVN. Both albums are released by Jazzland Recordings.

Collaboration with singers active outside the field of jazz (Jonas Ledang, Leon Røsten) continues in 2023, with her participation to the album After The Rain by Mathias Angelhus, where like in earlier collaborations in popular but non-jazz idiom, her lyrical improvisations bring this folk music to an unexpected dimension. Find review

In month? 2023, Halse presents a big band arrangement of her new piece Reconnectio to the OJKOS jazz composers' orchestra in a competition aiming at replacing 7 of the 16 OJKOS musicians by new ones for the next 5 years. 'Clarify. If 7 are renewed every year and stay 5 years, the orchestra has 35 musicians.' She is selected for 5 years among 60 applicants, together with 6 other young musicians.

In October 2023, Tuva Halse is selected as an ambassador of the Norwegian National Jazz Scene at the 2023 edition of Melting Pot, a recurring transnational cooperation between Jazzfest Berlin, Handelsbeurs Concert Hall in Ghent, Nasjonal Jazzscene in Oslo, Jazzfestival in Saalfelden and the Jazztopad festival in Wrocław.

After the Bento Box Trio in 2022, in 2024 the tuvahalseband is selected by Jazzintro 2024 among the 8 competing candidates. The finale will be held at Moldejazz in July 2024. The scene performances of Halse are acclaimed in various contexts, including a duo with pianist (and former piano teacher) Arne Torvik in March and a concert with Sara Fjeldvaer for the release of her album Stars in March.

Fjordgata
Tuva Halse is one of the founding members of Fjordgata Records, a music label born in 2021, together with Audun Rørmark, Sara Fjeldvær, and Benjamín Gislí Einarsson, all students of the Jazzlinja at Norwegian University of Science and Technology at that time. Fjordgata works as a cooperative of artists aiming at maintaining control on their production. Fjeldvær notes that they "see many who are ridiculously talented, hardworking, and completely absorbed in their music. But they can't crack the code with the industry stuff and end up getting lost". Halse explains that "now we have a platform where we not only record and distribute music but also organize release concerts, work on video production for songs, and so on".

According to the Gaffa music magazine, "the goal was to create a platform to release their own and others' music, ensuring that the musicians themselves do not lose significant royalties or ownership shares of their music. One often hears about "up-and-coming" bands and artists. But who are the "young promising" enthusiasts who want to facilitate and fight for these musicians when no one else does? Who dares to compete in a monopolized music landscape where unpredictability and nepotism reign?"

The Fjordgata platform shares the concerns that led to the foundation of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) in 1965 in Chicago. The AACM was similarly founded "by a group of musicians who sought to build and sustain a creative community and new platforms for experimentation and innovation in music." Cornettist player Taylor Ho Bynum illustrated the philosophy of AACM in a way that would also characterise the philosophy of the Fjordgata platform: "I attended my first N.Y.C. A.A.C.M. concert—honestly, I don’t remember who was playing. What I do remember is that Abrams was selling tickets at the box office, and Amina Claudine Myers was handing out programs at the door. I was stunned to see my musical heroes engaged in such humble tasks, but it was a message I took to heart. You don’t wait for anybody to give you anything if you can do it yourself. You do what you have to do, with hospitality and grace, to make the music happen. You support your fellow-musicians, and your fellow-musicians will support you. That way, you can make your own art, on your own terms: beautiful and weird and uncompromising and dangerous and joyful and original. Creativity matters, community matters, and it’s worth fighting for."

Two major differences between the AACM and Fjordgata platforms, however, are that AACM is additionally committed to community engagement and social justice, and restricts its activities to jazz music.

Interestingly, Fjordgata publishes works from the Cosmic Swing Orchestra, a Norwegian band that explicitly refers to Sun Ra, hence to Great Black Music (as defined, for instance, by Alexandre Pierrepont ), therefore implicitly, to AACM.

Talent prizes

 * Drømmstipendet (2017)
 * Sparebanken Møre (2022)
 * Sparebanken SMN (2022)
 * Handelsbanken year, evidence

Competitions

 * Jazzintro finalist (Bento Box Trio), Molde International Jazz Festival (2022)
 * Selected as Melting Pot artist (2023)
 * Selected in the OJKOS Orchestra for Jazz Composers (2023)

Grants

 * Young artist-in-residence, Classical arts festival Fjord Cadenza year, date range

Groups

 * Bento Box Trio
 * Tuva Halse Quintet
 * tuvahalseband

Live performances
The following list starts in 2020. It is incomplete before 2022, complete for 2022-23, and updated until 19-03-2024.

Tuva Halse groups

 * Boxed, Bento Box, Fjordgata Records (2022)
 * Two Tuva Halse Quintet, Jazzland Recordings (2023)
 * Nemesis (EP) tuvahalseband, Fjordgata Records (2023)

Singles

 * Demring Duo with Ingrid Vingen Sunde (2018)
 * November Duo with Ingrid Vingen Sunde (2018)
 * I Puste Duo with Ingrid Vingen Sunde (2018)

Collaborations

 * Information Therapy, Jonas Ledang, 	Øra Fonogram (2020)
 * Sara Fjeldvær, Sara Fjeldvær, Fjordgata Records (2021)
 * The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Jonas Ledang, Øra Fonogram (2022)
 * Roots, Miriam Kibakaya, Jazzland Recordings (2023)
 * We Don't Imagine Anymore, Vestemøy Narvesen, Jazzland Recordings (2023)
 * I Could Even Try To Change Your Mind, Leon Røsten, Spupz Night Crab Life (2023)
 * After The Rain, Mathias Angelhus, Øra Fonogram (2023)
 * Stars, Sara Fjeldvær, Fjordgata Records (2024)