One of the students who are performing, is the pianist Anni Savolainen. The concert will be streamed and Savolainen's family and friends in Finland can watch the concert online.

Over twelve students from the MA programme for Music Performance at the Grieg Academy have their final exam this spring semester. Of these students, one is stuck in their home country as a result of Covid-19 restrictions and has to have an alternative exam module. Another student from the jazz programme has already had their final exam. Ten of the students are performing their final exam within classical music, one student within jazz and one in composition.

Due to restrictions, there can be a maximum of 20 people attending the MA concerts this year.
– All the concerts will also be streamed, says producer from the Faculty of Art, Music and Design, Olav Tveitane.

Marvellous students
Master co-ordinator Einar Røttingen, says the students have had an exceptionally good attitude to all the Covid-19 related problems along the way.
– The students have just been marvellous, the bar has been set high and they have been so positive and supportive of each other. The goal has been to not let the coronavirus create depression, and they have been good with staying in touch in the ways that are possible.

Røttingen explains how the Grieg Academy had been able to keep individual lessons throughout the entire year, with the exception of some weeks.
– Individual lessons and guidance are the core of music education. Still, we have had to compromise the ensemble. Ensemble had been an issue throughout Corona, as there has been so much back and forth on limitations of people in a room. The ensemble activities have suffered as a cause of this. This issue also applies to jazz and classical disciplines such as song, strings and wind instruments.

2020 – a very sad year for Music performance at UiB
According to Røttingen, they have been very careful about corona at the Grieg Academy, as they would not be exempt from the rules of closed campuses.
– It has been essential for us to secure the exams, says Røttingen. He describes 2020 as a very sad year.
– We had to cancel all the performing exams. It was devastating for an institution that is all about live music, to not be able to have the final exams. Although there is a limitation on audience size, we will stream directly. This allows the parents of our Japanese and Finnish students, to watch the concert from their living room.

Wants to profile the exam concerts
Producer Olav Tveitane, says that the ambition is that the MA concert shall be as well profiled as the MA degree show in Fine Arts.
– That is not easy with the limited audience in the concert hall, but the Aula is otherwise a very great and grand frame for the concerts. Next year, the world will hopefully be slightly more normal. Then we can make more out of these concerts.

The concerts will be played with sensors and teachers present. If a sensor is not allowed to travel their participation will be streamed.

– The students will get the result straight after the concert, and will be notified in the back room, says Olav Tveitane.