22nd Dec 2024
I’m thrilled to share that I’ll be performing at Hardanger Musikkfest 2025! This incredible festival, set amidst the stunning fjords and mountains of the Hardanger region, is a celebration of music, culture, and nature. It’s an honor to bring my music to such a magical setting. Stay tuned and follow the festival’s social media channels for more details.
15th Jun 2024
I am pleased to announce the release of a studio single with piano music by Amy Beach. The piece “Out of the Depths”, Op. 130 is based on the biblical Psalm 130 (Out of the depths I call to you, Oh lord) and is a beautiful example of the joy of experimentation in late romantic piano music. Spending some time with the works of composer Amy Beach, I have also realised how incredibly unknown this very valuable music is! It is therefore very important to me to shed some more light on this incredible music.
3rd May 2024
For the next season 2024/2025 I got a spot at the Queen Sonja Opera Academy. This includes coaching and masterclases with world-known artists of the opera world as Lise Davidsen and Audun Iversen as well as coaches from the Met Opera in New York.
20th Mar 2023
I am happy to announce the release of my first studio recorded album with piano music by J.S. Bach and J. Brahms. In front of the op. 76 cycle of 8 Piano Pieces by Brahms that are rarely played in complete, the album features one of my personal favourites from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, the B-flat minor prelude and fugue from the first book. Both works, although very different in style and composing era, feature a very similar way of exposing a very intimate feeling of nostalgia and loneliness. While Bach stays within this field of feelings, Brahms takes these as a starting point to flourish into partly very contrasting character pieces that seem to me as if they contain the depth and richness of a whole lifetime.
26 January 2025, 3 PM – Levinsalen NMH, Oslo, Norway
Closing concert of NMH pianists’ concert tour
22 March 2025, 12 AM – Sagene Kirke, Oslo, Norway
Master Recital - Nostalgia through the times
27 March 2025, 6 PM – Levinsalen NMH, Oslo, Norway
Master Recital - Nostalgia through the times
10 April 2025, 7 PM – Levinsalen NMH, Oslo, Norway
Grieg’s Slåtter – concert with Håvard Gimse’s piano students at NMH
25 April 2025, 7 PM – Rødbanken Festsal, Tromsø, Norway
Operakafé
30 April 2025, 6 PM – Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway
Galaconcert arranged by Queen Sonja singing competition
8 May 2025, 6 PM – Sagene Kirke, Oslo, Norway
Chopin Nocturnes with NMH’s pianists
10 May 2025, 4 PM – Sandvoldsalen, NMH, Oslo, Norway
Chopin Nocturnes with NMH’s pianists
20 May 2025, 6 PM – Levinsalen, NMH, Oslo, Norway
Concert with the sing interpretation class of Matti Hirvonen
28 May 2025, 1 PM – Musikkonservatoriet, Tromsø, Norway
Sangeksamen
05 June 2025, 8 PM – Lindemansalen NMH, Oslo, Norway
Piano master degree exam concert
27 - 31 August 2025 – Hardanger, Norway
Multiple performances as pianist and singer during Hardanger Musikkfest
Archive
06 August 2024 – Venabu Fjellhotell, Norway
solo piano recital
20 July 2024, 7 PM – Gasteig Munich, Germany
piano soloist at “vokalSinn” Choir Festival
03 June 2024 – Musikkonservatoriet Tromsø, Norway
Singing exam concert
11 May 2024 – Sagene kirke, Oslo, Norway
Schubert Complete Piano Sonatas marathon concert together with NMH pianists
10 May 2024 – Lindemansalen NMH, Oslo, Norway
Concert in cooperation with the Polish embassy
03 May 2024 – Levinsalen NMH, Oslo, Norway
Schuberts Complete Piano Sonatas concert together with NMH pianists
16 April 2024 – Lahti, Finland
Concert as part of the ERASMUS funded BAIL project
22-28 January 2024 – Lillesand/Kristiansand, Norway
Concert Tour with NMH pianists
The pianist and bass-baritone, born in 2001 in Schleswig, Northern Germany, began his varied musical education
in his early childhood. After initially learning the basics of the piano on his own as well as singing in church choirs
and playing the violin and viola, he began his piano education at the age of 10 with the Irish-German pianist
Kevin McKenna.
It was precisely this self-taught method that gave him an extremely natural and personal approach to music right
from the start.
This was followed by numerous concert appearances (also in cooperation with the state theater of Schleswig-Holstein)
and prizes at competitions (including the national Jugend musiziert competition).
After graduating from high school, he began his studies for an artistic piano bachelor’s degree at the University of Music in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 2019 with Prof. Kalle Randalu, which he completed with distinction in 2023. In 2022, Julius von Forstner enthusiastically completed an ERASMUS exchange semester at the Arctic University of Tromsø, Norway, with Prof. Sergej Osadchuk. He also received further important impulses from Heike Allardt, Andrej Jussow, Vadim Palmov, Matti Hirvonen, Anne Sophie von Otter, at the Mattheiser Summer Academy, the Nordland Chamber Music Course and from Prof. Christopher Park during the Voksenåsen Summer Academy.
In addition to chamber music, song interpretation and contemporary music, his studies at the Karlsruhe University of Music also sparked a great interest in classical singing. In 2023, Julius von Forstner therefore began his classical singing studies with Prof. Holger Speck as a bass-baritone and has already built up a broad repertoire of songs as well as oratorio and opera arias. The combination of piano and singing offers him ideally complementary skills that greatly enrich him as a musician.
In the fall of 2023, Julius von Forstner moved to Oslo, Norway, also because of his great enthusiasm for the country and its culture. At the Norwegian Academy of Music, he began his master studies in performing arts with Prof. Håvard Gimse. At the same time, he is continuing his vocal studies at the Arctic University in Tromsø with Prof. Anne-Lise Sollied and Prof. Carlo Allemano. For the season 2024/2025 Julius von Forstner got invited to the Queen Sonja Opera Academy.
