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About the choir
Con Amore is a high quality, mixed amateur choir with approximately 50 singers well distributed on four vocal groups. Several members have been with us from the very beginning. Our members live in the Oslo region. They have all considerable singing experience and a reflected view on choir singing and how this fits into one’s priorities in life.
Our conductor is Egil Fossum who has been a conductor for choirs and orchestras for more than 35 years. He is an experienced soloist , composer and producer. He has been working as a freelancer out of Stuttgart, Germany, since 1985. He is the founder of a choir festival that gathers almost 2000 amateur singers each year.
During the last years our repertoire, besides “light music”, has been turned more towards sonorous, romantic music, in particular songs with roots in the Central-Eastern and Russian tradition. However, our repertoire spans widely and covers challenging works of, among many others, Rachmaninov, Gretchaninov, Gorecki, Tavener and Norwegian composers such as Grieg, Nystedt and Hovland. Folk songs and popular songs from many countries are also among our favourites.
Every now and then we seek extraordinary challenges. Hence, in year 2000 we did Carmina Burana by Carl Orff (chamber version) together with two other choirs and excellent solo singers, pianists and percussionists. We managed to fill the Oslo University Consert Hall for two performances.
Social events are important to us. We try to arrange a tour every second year. In 1999 we went to Provence and in 2001 we were lucky and got in contact with one of the best amateur choirs in the Czech Republic, the “Janacek Choir”. We visited Jablonec and Prague in June 2001 we gave a number of concerts and had great fun. The Janacek Choir, which has given concerts in 15 different countries, has never been to Scandinavia. They came to Oslo the last week in August and we had a good time together. Con Amore hosted 48 members of the Janacek choir and promoted and arranged the concerts they gave. Summer 2004 we went to Irland for a week.
Origin of the choir
Con Amore started with a selection of singers from Oslo Youth Choir, who reached the age of retirement from that choir at an age of 33, but did not yet feel prepared for the graveyard. Con Amore was then founded in 1969 and has grown and prospered since.
Several individuals have made extraordinary contributions to the choir during a number of years, notably our first conductor Tor Skauge (one of the pillars in Norwegian choir life) and Aage Bjartaas, who conducted the choir successfully through a very difficult period. Eirik Sørborg was our conductor from 1997 to 2002, a highly talented and ambitious, young conductor.
Alf Pedersen, Kirsten Føyen, Eirik Halmøy and Hans Nussle are Honorary Member of Con Amore. Alf Pedersen was one of the founders and has done an outstanding job for the choir during all these years. Kirsten, Eirik and Hans have also done a great job for the choir for more than 30 years.
When and where do we rehearse?
Every Thursday from 7:00 pm until 9:30 pm in Nordberg Church,
Kringsjågrenda 1.
Would you like to join?
If you have experience from other choirs and can read music, we hope you will join us!
Questions?
Contact us at post@conamore.no
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