Written by Today the board of the Oslo Jazz Festival announced the appointment of Øyvind Skjerven Larsen as new Festival Director for Oslo Jazz Festival. Current Festival Director Edvard Askeland, who has been at the festival since 2007, will return to his career as a musician after the completion of this year’s festival.
Øyvind Skjerven Larsen has been a key member of the Oslo music scene since the end of the 90s. His background includes time with the jazz club Blå, Universal Music and Music Export Norway, and for the past six years he has been working for Norsk Jazzforum (the Norwegian jazz forum), a non-profit organisation working for all groups connected to the Norwegian jazz scene – clubs, big bands, festivals, education institutions and musicians. Skjerven Larsen is a member of Music Norway’s travel grant committee, has a position in the Election Committee for Europe Jazz Network and is a contributing writer for Norwegian jazz magazine Jazznytt.
Øyvind Skjerven Larsen
“The board of OJF is very pleased that Øyvind Skjerven Larsen has accepted the position. He is very knowledgeable and has a wide network of contacts at home and abroad. He also has an open, creative, curious and energetic personality. We are confident that we have got a festival director who will continue to push Oslo Jazz Festival forward, cooperate well with the the local scene, and ensure that the positive development of OJF will continue, to the benefit of both musicians, volunteers and for the public” said Ellen Horn, chairman of the board at Oslo Jazz Festival.
The incoming director Øyvind Skjerven Larsen stated “I am really looking forward to embarking on the tasks and opportunities that lie in hosting a jazz festival in Europe’s busiest jazz city. Looking at the scope and breadth of the Norwegian jazz scene, we see that Norwegian jazz has never been more active and up-to-date. Jazz’s golden age is now, and my goal is to make Oslo the European jazz capital.”
More information on the Oslo Jazz Festival and the 2019 line-up can be found at the festivals website.
Last modified: April 10, 2019
