− As an orchestra musician nothing can measure up to a perfect performance, where everything comes together for everyone.
Jørn Halbakken grew up in Oslo, and started playing the violin with Kaare Sæther as a teacher when he was six years old. Folk music was also important to him when he was growing up.
− Kaare Sæther´s love of violin playing, and especially orchestral music, was a motivating factor for me when I was growing up, he says.
During his teenage years, Jørn drew important inspiration for and knowledge of orchestral playing from the orchestra courses at Elverum.
− It remains as the most important time
Studies in Vienna were Jørn´s next great inspiration:
− My studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna with Günther Pichler remain as the most important time for my violin playing and my understanding of music.
His time in Vienna was tremendously rich also in other ways:
− The music life Vienna had to offer was simply fantastic! Orchestral and chamber music concerts on the very highest level, in addition to the Staatsoper!
Later, Ernst Glaser in Oslo and Camilla Wicks in San Francisco were influential teachers.
− It has been an incredible journey
Jørn had his debut concert in Oslo already as a eighteen-year-old in 1974, and was engaged by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1977.
− It has been an incredible journey since that time, running parallel with another incredible journey with The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, which started in the same year.
He has also been a soloist with the orchestra several times, playing violin concertos by Saint-Saëns, Wieniawski and Prokofiev, but also playing the harding fiddle, in Johan Halvorsen´s Fanitullen.
He finds it difficult to pinpoint a favourite composer, but draws out a few:
− There are many fine composers. But Brahms, Mahler, Sibelius and Mozart are at least some of the ones I rate the most highly. As an orchestra musician nothing can measure up to a perfect performance, where everything comes together for everyone. Such as when we played Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss in Salzburg with the Oslo Philharmonic and Mariss Jansons.