ITEC 2006 (Denver, USA)


”TubaKvartetten” is a tuba/euphonium quartet from the Vestby Cultural School in Norway.

Their former teacher, Morten Bøe, formed the quartet in the fall of 2000.  Morten Bøe is the director of Vestby Cultural School and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire where he studied tuba under professor Dr. Jerry Young.  “TubaKvartetten” consists of four students previously attending the two school wind bands in Vestby.  Vestby is a community 45 kilometres south of Oslo, with approx. 12,000 citizens.

The quartet has performed regularly in the Oslo area, and has won several regional ensemble competitions.  In 2002 they were selected to perform in the “Kudramuda”-show in the Oslo Concert Hall.  In 2003 they claimed 4^th prize and in 2004 2^nd prize in the National Ensemble Competition.  The repertory includes a variety of pieces, from classical to folk, and jazz and contemporary.

As a result of their collaboration with Dr. Jerry Young they were invited in 2002 to a performing residency at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire in USA. There they toured several schools and were featured in the “Tubonium”-festival in Minneapolis.

In 2004 they attended ITEC 2004 in Budapest and held a concert at “Young Talent’s Corner”.  There they met the members of Sotto Voce and were fortunate to get instruction in Budapest from the members of the quartet.  Sotto Voce invited “TubaKvartetten” to attend their symposium in Bloomington the summer of 2005.

At ITEC 2006  they presented a program consisting of Norwegian music exclusively. Both original compositions for tuba quartet by Kristoffer Lo and Morten Bøe, and music written by Norwegian composers arranged for tuba quartet.

The members of the quartet are; on tuba Kristoffer Lo (age 22) and Pål Gustav Eriksen (age 18), and on euphonium Line Eriksen (age 21) and Hanne Pretorius Fjeld (age 19).  Kristoffer has started his higher education in jazz at the Conservatory in Trondheim.  One of his teachers is Øystein Baadsvik. Hanne have started her musical education, this year at Toneheim in Hamar. The other members have not yet started higher education in music.