Per Arne Glorvigen is one of the leading bandoneon players of our time. He only decided to take up his instrument at the age of 25. When he moved to Paris after completing his studies (accordion and guitar) at the Oslo State Academy of Music, he met the Argentinian bandoneon maestro Juan José Mosalini. After his studies with Mosalini and several stays in Buenos Aires, Glorvigen began his career as a professional bandoneonist. Encounters with the tango legends Piazzolla, Pugliese and Salgán and his close friendship with the poet and tango historian Horacio Ferrer had a lasting impact on his career.
He expanded the classical tango repertoire for his instrument to include works from baroque, klezmer, pop and, above all, contemporary music. Composers such as Willem Jeths (Holland), Bernd Franke (Germany), Henrik Hellstenius (Norway) and Luis Naon (Argentina/France) have dedicated concertos for bandoneon and orchestra to him. After studying with Eric Tanguy (composition) and Guillaume Connesson (orchestration) in Paris, Glorvigen also turned to composing himself.
His works have been performed in numerous European countries. Recently he has been commissioned by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Apollon Musagète Quartet and the Arctic Sinfonietta. Glorvigen's musical partners include, among others the cellists Nicolas Altstaedt and Andreas Brantelid, the harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet, the guitarist Göran Söllscher, the ensemble Tango for 3, the Apollon Musagète Quartet and the Alban Berg Quartet, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Guiseppe Verdi Milano, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Oslo, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Copenhagen, the Russian National Orchestra and the Orchestre National d'Île-de-France.
He has conducted several productions at the Komische Oper Berlin, including the tango opera "Maria de Buenos Aires" by Astor Piazzolla. His most important partner, however, is the violinist Gidon Kremer, with whom he has given almost 100 concerts worldwide and recorded four CDs. Glorvigen's recordings have been released by Simax, Auvidis, Nonesuch, Sony Classical, Teldec, EMI Classics and Deutsche Grammophon.
