Much has been learned about early music in Norway from physical artifacts found during archaeological digs. These include instruments such as the lur. Viking and medieval sagas also describe musical activity, as do the accounts of priests and pilgrims from all over Europe coming to visit St Olav's grave in Trondheim.
The music of Iceland includes folk and pop traditions, as well as an active classical and contemporary music scene. Well-known artists from Iceland include medieval music group Voces Thules, alternative pop band The Sugarcubes, singers Björk, Laufey, Daði Freyr, Hafdís Huld and Emiliana Torrini, post-rock band Sigur Rós and Múm, post-metal band Sólstafir, indie folk/indie pop band Of Monsters and Men, blues/rock band Kaleo, metal band Skálmöld and techno-industrial band Hatari. Iceland's traditional music is related to Nordic music forms. Although Iceland has a very small population, it is home to many famous and praised bands and musicians.
Henrik Hellstenius is a Norwegian composer and musicologist.
The Israel Music Institute (IMI) is a non-profit organization supported by the Israel Ministry of Education and Culture. The institute was established in 1961 by the Public Committee for Arts and Culture, with the aim of publishing and promoting Israeli art music at home and abroad. IMI also serves as the Israel Music Information Center- a member of the International Association of Music Information Centers (IAMIC), maintaining reciprocal ties with some 40 member countries.
The Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM), originally named The Committee for the Promotion of New Music, was founded in January 1943 in London by the émigré composer Francis Chagrin, to promote the creation and performance of new music in the UK by young and unestablished composers. Since 1993 it has awarded the annual Francis Chagrin Award and the Butterworth Prize for Composition. In 2008, it merged with three other networks to form Sound and Music.
The Saami Council is a voluntary, non-governmental organization of the Sámi people made up of nine Sámi member organizations from Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden. Since the founding of the Nordic Saami Council in 1956, among the first indigenous peoples' organizations, the Saami Council has actively dealt with Sámi public policy tasks. In 1992, when Russian Sámi groups joined the council, "Nordic" was removed from the council's name. The secretary was previously sited in both Helsinki and Utsjoki, Finland, but is now in Kárášjohka, Norway. The Saami Council is funded by a range of grants, and its engagements are based on decisions, statements, declarations, and political programs from the Saami Conference held every four years.
The BIT20 Ensemble is a contemporary music ensemble from Bergen, Norway, founded in 1989. It was formed in the merger of the quartet, Bit4, and Ensemble 20.
Vladimir Graić is a Serbian composer of popular, film and television music. Among other pieces, he composed the song Molitva, performed by Marija Šerifović, which won the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest.
The Cultural Cold War was a set of propaganda campaigns waged by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, with each country promoting their own culture, arts, literature, and music. In addition, less overtly, their opposing political choices and ideologies at the expense of the other. Many of the battles were fought in Europe or in European Universities, with Communist Party leaders depicting the United States as a cultural black hole while pointing to their own cultural heritage as proof that they were the inheritors of the European Enlightenment. The U.S. responded by accusing the Soviets of "disregarding the inherent value of culture," and subjugating art to the controlling policies of a totalitarian political system, even as they felt saddled with the responsibility of preserving and fostering western civilization's best cultural traditions, given the many European artists who took refuge in the United States before, during, and after World War II.
Nordic Music Days is a festival for new Nordic music that was founded in 1888 and has a long history of musical collaboration. It is considered one of the oldest festivals for contemporary classical music globally. What sets this festival apart is that it is organized by the composers themselves.
KODA is the collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers of Denmark.
Jon Mostad is a composer from Fredrikstad, Norway. He received the Norwegian state three-year scholarship for artists from 1982 until 1984.
Uusinta Ensemble is a Grammy-winning Finnish chamber ensemble, focusing on contemporary music. Until 2013, the ensemble was known as "Uusinta Chamber Ensemble", or "Uusinta-kamariyhtye" in Finnish.
Marcus Nicolay Paus is a Norwegian composer and one of the most performed contemporary Scandinavian composers. As a classical contemporary composer he is noted as a representative of a reorientation toward tradition, tonality and melody, and his works have been lauded by critics in Norway and abroad. His work includes chamber music, choral works, solo works, concerts, orchestral works, operas, symphonies and church music, as well as works for theatre, film and television. Paus is regarded as "one of the most celebrated classical composers of Norway" and "the leading Norwegian composer of his generation."
The Swedish Society of Composers is a professional organization based in Stockholm, Sweden, representing Swedish composers of contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1918, and today has 370 members, of which 347 are composers. The president is Martin Q Larsson, since 2010.
Khalid Salimi is a human rights activist, culture and arts critic, former music columnist for weekly Morgenbladet and an advisor on cross-cultural and art-related issues for the Nordic Culture Fund. He is artistic director of international performing arts festival Mela Festival, organized annually in Oslo, Norway by Mela Foundation, and Chief Editor of Samora Forum Magazine. He is currently director of Melahouse, an independent cultural community center of performing arts. Salimi is regarded as one of the most influential intellectuals in Norway with an immigrant background.
The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) is an international, non-profit organization based in Brussels and composed by more than 55 associations of composers and songwriters in more than 25 different European countries. It represents around 30,000 music creators and was founded in 2007. ECSA is co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
Jan Erik Mikalsen is a Norwegian composer of contemporary music, living in Oslo.
Geir Johnson was a composer, writer and initiator of culture projects living at Nesodden outside Oslo. He was born in Fredrikstad, and received his first musical training as a soprano soloist in boys' choirs in Oslo, followed by music training in piano and singing, as well as choral conducting studies with Knut Nystedt. His own performance career spanned from many years of choral conducting, via a short career as singer and keyboard player in a rock band, to performance artist in a multi-artist collective titled The TRASH Ensemble.
