Gunvald Ottesen

Gunvald Ottesen (born 1993) grew up in Stord, an island town on the west coast of Norway. He completed his masters degree in orchestral conducting at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in June 2020. Prior to this he did his bachelor degree in orchestral conducting at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo with Ole Kristian Ruud and Sigmund Thorp, as well as one year as an exchange student in Stockholm, with Glenn Mossop. Ottesen also has a background as a violinist, studying with Terje Moe Hansen in Oslo and Jannica Gustafsson in Stockholm.

​Growing up on the west coast of Norway, he played violin in several string orchestras and youth orchestras in and around the Bergen region. He also spent his younger years in theatre and musical theatre, which has led him to specialize his conducting career towards opera and musical theatre conducting.

​For several years, he has conducted productions at the Oslo Operafestival, such as Don Giovanni in 2018 and Così fan tutte in 2019, as well as the world premiere of Kjell Habbestad’s opera Karlstad 1905 in 2016.

Parallell to his studies, Ottesen often worked as assistant conductor in larger scale productions, such as The Magic Flute in 2017, as assistant to Magnus Loddgard, Il Trovatore in 2019 (assistant to Gregor Bühl), both at Opera Østfold, and Don Giovanni at NorrlandsOperan in 2020 (assistant to Benjamin Bayl). He has also assisted and conducted productions at the opera academies in Oslo and Stockholm.

​In the last few years, Gunvald has been working with orchestras like Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway, and Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Gävle Symphony Orchestra as well as the orchestras of Gothenburg Opera and NorrlandsOperan in Sweden. In the fall of 2020, he made his debut with Gothenburg Opera, conducting a production of the musical «Cabaret».

​During the period 2019-2021, Gunvald has been a participant in the Norwegian elite conducting program Dirigentforum, aiming to give experience and masterclasses to the most talented young conductors in Norway.

After being the assistant conductor for Eivind Gullberg Jensen in our Magic Flute autumn 2022, Gunvald Ottesen returned to Bergen in December to conduct the family opera Amahl and the Night Visitors in December.

This spring (2022) he was assistant conductor for Alfred Eschwé in our brand new version of Die Fledermaus, and in December he is back as the conductor for our revival of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Main source: the homepage gunvaldottesen.com

Updated September 2022