Annar Follesø, violin

Violinist Annar Follesø is one of Norway’s foremost musicians. He received his training at the Barratt Due Music Institute in Oslo and at Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington, USA, where he graduated with an Artist Diploma. In addition to his violin studies with professor Mauricio Fuks in Bloomington, he received instruction in baroque violin with professor Stanley Ritchie and in chamber music with György Sebök, Leonard Hokanson and Menahem Pressler.

Follesø has toured and performed as soloist and chamber musician in several countries, including USA, Russia, China, Italy, France, Austria and South Korea. In December 2006 Follesø played the Bruch "Scottish Fantasy" with the Euro-Asian Philharmonic Orchestra in Seoul, South Korea.
Follesø is, together with composer and pianist Wolfgang Plagge, artistic director of Sunnmøre Chamber Music Festival, which saw its first edition in 2010.

Follesø has made three critically acclaimed recordings for the Norwegian label 2L. The first (2003), made in cooperation with pianist Helge Kjekshus, was devoted to works by the Norwegian composer and pianist Wolfgang Plagge, and the second (2005) comprised of works by Bartók. This album, made in cooperation with pianist Christian Ihle Hadland and the Finnish clarinetist Björn Nyman, became an international reference recording.
In 2010 Follesø released world premiere recordings of the violin concertos of Ole Bull, in collaboration with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and conductor Ole Kristian Ruud. The disc also includes several other Bull compositions, including the recently re-discovered Spanish fantasy, "La verbena de San Juan", which Follesø premiered at the Bergen International Festival in 2007.
The release has been a big international success, and The Grieg Society of Great Britain made it its "Record of the Year", an honour rarely bestowed upon non-Grieg recordings.

In 1998 Follesø became the first Norwegian violin soloist to perform at the Salzburg Festival, when he won the violin prize at the International Summer Academy in Salzburg for his interpretation of the Bartók Solo Sonata.

September 2010