Tabita Berglund - NOSPR

Hailed as “one of Europe’s greatest promises” (Helsingin Sanomat), Tabita Berglund is one of today’s most exciting, talented young conductors who is fast gaining a reputation for her alert, charismatic and inspiring style which elicits “exceptional music-making” (The Arts Desk). Berglund is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, appointed to this post following her debut engagement with the orchestra in 2020. In October 2024 she becomes the new Principal Guest Conductor of Detroit Symphony Orchestra, with whom she made her US debut in 2023.

Symphonic highlights of the 2023/24 season include Berglund’s debuts with Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berner Symphonieorchester, Orchestre National de Lyon, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Musikkollegium Winterthur, and Grafenegg Festival where she joins forces with Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich for the second time and ahead of further performances later in the season. Working together again with the Philharmonia, Berglund makes her Garsington Opera debut conducting a revival production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Other return highlights during the season include Berglund’s final concerts as Principal Guest of the KSO, as well as engagements with Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Trondheim Symfoniorkester and Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra.

Throughout 2023/24, Berglund collaborates with internationally-renowned soloists such as Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leila Josefowicz, Truls Mørk, Camilla Tilling, Benjamin Beilman, Paul Lewis and Johan Dalene. She continues to champion the music of Nordic compatriots such as Sibelius, Stenhammar, Tveitt, Nordheim and Thorvaldsdottir, as part of a wide-ranging repertoire from Mozart and Beethoven through to Prokofiev, Boulanger and Lutosławski, among others.

Previous season highlights include Berglund’s US debut with Detroit Symphony Orchestra as well as engagements with Bergen Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony and Stavanger Symphony orchestras, Luzerner Symphonieorchester, Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Hallé, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Tapiola Sinfonietta, among others.

Berglund graduated in 2019 from the Orchestral Conducting Masters course at the Norwegian Academy of Music, where she studied under Professor Ole Kristian Ruud. She originally trained as a cellist and studied to Master’s degree level under Truls Mørk, performing regularly with the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic orchestras as well as the Trondheim Soloists before conducting became her main focus in 2015. She was the 2018–20 star of the Talent Norway programme and is a past recipient of the Gstaad Conducting Academy’s Neeme Järvi Prize. Berglund’s debut CD, on which she conducts the Oslo Philharmonic with violinist Sonoko Miriam Welde, was released in 2021 (LAWO) and subsequently nominated for a Norwegian Grammy (Spellemann) in the 2022 Classical Music category.