Per Kristian Skalstad

Norwegian conductor Per Kristian Skalstad works regularly with all the major Norwegian orchestras. Since his debut as a conductor in 2002, he has done a large number of ballets, operas and symphonic concerts all over Norway, in Sweden and Germany, and on chamber orchestra tours to Denmark, England, Belgium, Russia and the US.

The 16- 17 season and the next, Skalstad will visit the Oslo Philharmonic, the Norwegian Opera & Ballet, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, The Norwegian Wind Ensemble, The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Bodø Sinfonietta, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Murmansk Philharmonic.

For several years, Skalstad has been a frequent guest conductor for the Norwegian National Ballet, leading a number of big productions, such as Giselle and Don Quijote, along with works by Balanchine, Kylian and Lightfoot/Leon. In 2014, he conducted the production of "A Swan Lake" by Ekman/Karlsson, and in the spring he conducted for the Nederlands Dance Theatre on their tour to Festspielhaus Baden Baden. In 2015, his work for the Norwegian National Ballet included "The rite of spring", Rossini/Lightfoot: Skew Wiff and the famous classic Giselle.

Future productions include works by Lightfoot/Leon, the Ballet Carmen in Oslo and Vienna; works by Balanchine in Oslo and Stavanger and the Nutcracker in Oslo. 
Skalstad conducts the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra regularly, and has done a number of operas with them: The Barber of Sevilla, The Marriage of Figaro, Dido and Aeneas, "Der Schöne Tod" (opera installation) and "The Kiberg Odyssee".

He has also conducted productions of La Clemenza di Tito, Carmen and Britten´s "Let´s make an opera".

Per Kristian Skalstad has conducted the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra a number of times, with sololists like Leif Ove Andsnes, Isabelle Van Keulen, Ian Bostridge, Gidon Kremer, Paul Lewis, Lars Anders Tomter and Jean Guihen Quyeras. He premiered the piano concerto “La Mattina” by Bent Sørensen with Andsnes and the NCO in 2009, and has since then taken this work on tours to the Bergen Festival, Musikhalle Hamburg, the Proms in Albert Hall and the Ojay Music Festival in California, USA. In 2010 he also conducted the NCO on tours to Brussels, London and New York. 

In September 2016 Skalstad conducted the Norwegian premiere of "Ouroboros", a cello concerto by Thomas Larcher, with soloist Jean Guihen Quyeras and the NCO. 
Per Kristian Skalstad is also a violinist, and was for 12 years assistent concertmaster of the Norwegian Opera Orchestra, a long time member of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and the Oslo String Quartet.