Morten Schjelderup Wensberg
Professor
Department of Classical Music
Bio
Morten Schjelderup Wensberg is professor of conducting at the University of Stavanger (UiS), Faculty of performing arts. He is also associated with Talent Norway (Talent Norge) as the artistic leader of the Norwegian Conductors Program (Dirigentløftet).
Wensberg was dean of the Faculty of performing arts at UiS 2018-2022 and served as leader of the National council for performing and creative music education in Universities Norway (UHR Nasjonalt fagorgan for utøvende og skapende musikk).
Morten Wensberg is the creator of several e-learning innovations and is engaged at the forefront of online education in music, particularly in conducting. Wensberg was project leader of ConductIT; an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership 2018-2021 where the University of Stavanger, Royal Northern College of Music, University of Aveiro and Open University joined forces to create advanced web-based conducting studies.
Wensberg led the so-called Telestrator project, where the University of Stavanger utilized advanced video analysis, originally developed for top-level athletes, in their conducting tutoring. This project was supported by the Centre of Excellence in Music Performance Education (CEMPE) at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Wensberg is the architect behind the Norwegian Conductors Program (Dirigentløftet), which is run by Talent Norway (Talent Norge) and the DNB Savings Bank Foundation (Sparebankstiftelsen DNB). He is also the founder of Norway’s largest conducting course, Conductor’s Week in Stavanger (Dirigentuka), where over 100 conductors participate annually.
Morten Wensberg studied music performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo (cand. mag., 1997) and Duquesne University (Master of Music, 1999) in Pittsburgh, USA. In 2006 he finished a master’s degree in orchestral conducting at the Norwegian Academy of Music, where he studied with professor Ole Kristian Ruud, and took master classes with Pierre Boulez, George Hurst, Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam.
Since then he has been guest conductor with a number of orchestras and ensembles in Norway, Sweden and Finland, among them the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.
In November 2006 Morten S Wensberg was a prizewinner in the 3rd International Jorma Panula Conducing Competition where he was awarded the special prize for his contemporary music interpretation. His recordings with the Norwegian Brass Expo are critically acclaimed.
