The Oslo Community Choir are making their debut in Ireland, singing a lunchtime recital today at 13:30. Admission to the recital is included in the regular cathedral entry.
The Oslo Community Choir is a Christian ecumenical choir that was formed in the autumn of 2008. The Choir consists of 40 singers from the Oslo area.
The choir’s founder and director is Martin Alfsen, who is one of Scandinavia’s best known choir directors in the field of Gospel and Contemporary Christian music and who is also an acclaimed composer, producer and arranger.
Among the projects the choir has undertaken can be mentioned ”The Young and Soulful Messiah” – a contemporary version of Handel’s great oratory. The work was performed to a sold-out Oslo Concert Hall in March 2013 and again in 2024. In the spring of 2014, The Oslo Community Choir presented the work ”Song Of Freedom – a tribute to Nelson Mandela” on concerts in Norway and on a tour to South Africa. The work was performed in Cape Town as part of the Sounds Fringe Festival in the famous St George’s Cathedral.
Before Christmas in 2014 the choir did the premier performance of Martin Alfsen’s new mass ”Stjerneskinn” (Starshine) celebrating the time of advent. In 2015 the choir recorded the work that was released on CD and on digital platforms in November.
In the spring of 2015, The Oslo Community Choir did their first tour in the USA. The choir performed a repertoire of ”Norwegian gospel songs”, many of them penned and arranged by Martin Alfsen at concerts in the New York area.
In June 2016 Oslo Community Choir made its first trip to Montenegro. The choir performed concerts in some of the country’s beautiful cathedrals with the title ”Gospel Songs and Spirituals” and in 2017 and 2018 the choir performed the same program on tours to Italy and Spain.
In 2019 Oslo Community Choir recorded the gospel album ”A Gospel Celebration” together with Reflex and Ingrid Arthur and the choir’s last foreign tour before the pandemic struck went to California in June 2019.
In the late summer of 2022, The Oslo Community Choir made their first tour to Germany with concerts in the eastern part of Germany.
In the spring of 2024, The Oslo Community Choir will go to Ireland for the first time giving concerts in Dublin and Galway.
