Peter Herresthal

Violinist Peter Herresthal is an important interpreter of contemporary violin music, having premiered Scandinavian works and the Concentric Paths concerto of Thomas Adès. He is also a noted educator who has been active at home in Norway and abroad.
Herresthal was born in Oslo on November 3, 1970. He attended the Norwegian Academy of Music, graduating in 1992, and went on for a master’s (1996), studying with Isaac Schuldman and Magnus Ericsson. Herresthal also studied contemporary music with Luciano Berio, Arne Nordheim, and others. During his student years, he was already performing as a member of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. Herresthal has appeared as a soloist with the major Norwegian orchestras, abroad with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Navarra, and Vienna Radio Symphony, as well as with contemporary music groups like the Remix Ensemble in Portugal. He has traveled widely to perform at festivals, including the New Music Festival at the University of Louisville School and Music, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and the Gaudeamus Festival Rotterdam, often playing contemporary music as a soloist or chamber musician. In concert, Herresthal has been associated with a primarily but not exclusively Scandinavian repertory, often performing concertos by Per Nørgård, Arne Nordheim, Henri Dutilleux, and Thomas Adès, of whose violin concerto Concentric Paths, he gave national premieres in Norway, Austria, Spain, and Australia.
Herresthal has likewise focused on contemporary Scandinavian music on a series of recordings for the BIS label, beginning in 1997 with a release devoted to the complete violin music of Nordheim. He recorded Adès' Concentric Paths with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in 2010 under conductor Andrew Manze. In 2020, he appeared on an Oslo Philharmonic compilation of works by Kaija Saariaho that earned a Grammy nomination for Best Compendium. After holding appointments at several other Norwegian institutions, Herresthal has been a professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music since 2008. He is also in demand as a visiting instructor in Norway and beyond, and he has taught at the Steinhardt School of Music at New York University and the Royal College of Music in London. ~ James Manheim