The pre-Christmas period is hectic for choirs all over the world. Crown Princess Mette Marit was present at the Norwegian Girls’ Choir rehearsal as they prepared for Christmas.
The Crown Princess, who is the choir’s high patron, wanted to get to know the choir and its activities better. During the busy pre-Christmas period, a number of well-known and beloved Christmas songs were naturally on the rehearsal repertoire during the Crown Princess’ visit which took place on December 1st 2021.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit was received by artistic director Anne Karin Sundal-Ask and the girls’ choir’s shop stewards Karoline Heyerdahl and Rebecka Waldum. When the Crown Princess entered the rehearsal room, she was greeted with a song from the choir, which was in the middle of the rehearsals. The choir’s chairman welcomed the Crown Princess, while artistic director Sundal-Ask briefed her on ongoing artistic development. The Crown Princess spent a lot of time talking to the girls about what it is like to sing in the choir.
The Norwegian Girls’ Choir is in their most hectic time of the year and in the coming weeks has a packed program with Christmas concerts. On Sunday 12 December, the Norwegian Girls’ Choir will hold two Christmas concerts in Queen Sonja`s Art Stable.
The Norwegian Girls’ Choir is a choir school for talented singers and consists of four choirs – the recruit group, the aspirant choir, the main choir and the Studio choir. The more than 110 singers are aged from 6 to 26 years and come in after an entrance exam. The choir was established as the TV-station NRK’s Girls’ Choir in 1947, and has since established proud traditions and a high artistic level. With an artistic profile that is both innovative and traditional, The Norwegian Girls’ Choir has a goal of creating strong expressions that affect the audience as well as singers.
The Norwegian Girls’ Choir is a committed and current cultural organisation which also commissions new music and further develops the Norwegian traditional cultural heritage. The education given to the talented girls is unique, with a combination of teaching music theory, singing, conducting and individual singing lessons, as well as concerts and tours at home and abroad. The choir’s ambitions are to be the whole of Norway’s girls’ choir. The Norwegian Girls’ Choir has been an independent choir after the choir left the TV-station NRK in 1994.
