Children's Opening Concert
Two very different musicians. One can sing the most beautiful opera arias. The other is a free jazz trumpeter. Can two such different soloists make it work together?
Program
A full overview of this years events, the music being performed, and the artists performing. Buy your tickets directly if you know what you want.
Loading events...
Tuesday 23 June
Free City Concert
Head down to the town centre and take your place together with hundreds of other music lovers. The starting signal for another lovely summer day in Risør.
Opening Concert
Artistic Director Tine Thing Helseth invites you to a spectacular opening featuring Haydn, Ravel, and others. Welcome to Risør Chamber Music Festival 2026!
Midsummer Celebration at Torvet
We're inviting the whole city to the main square on the most beautiful summer day of the year. Classical delights and good vibes, plus food and drinks. Welcome!
Wednesday 24 June
Friends' Breakfast
Exclusively for our Friends of the Festival at the venerable Risør Town Hall. There will be food, drinks, music, and a chance to meet Tine and the administration.
At Home with Brita & Jan Egil
People of Risør open their homes so you can experience chamber music as chamber music was meant to be. Intimate and unfiltered, here you get very close to the artists and the music.
Free City Concert
Head down to the town centre and take your place together with hundreds of other music lovers. The starting signal for another lovely summer day in Risør, in the last week of June.
Mari's Song Treasures
Close your eyes and picture this: Soprano Mari Eriksmoen in a summer dress in a lush green garden, her world-renowned voice filling your entire heart.
Gold Lasts Forever
Quality music endures everything. You can tear and wear, twist and turn, take full liberties with the original - and the quality still shines through.
Back to the Future
Beethoven's string quartet will finally be performed in Risør Church again. But the first part of the concert is crucial to understanding Beethoven's last great work.
POING Plays Jokke
After last year's smash success, POING delivers another celebration of a 40-year-old album. This time, rock legend Jokke takes center stage.
Thursday 25 June
At Home with Per Christen & Julie
People of Risør open their homes so you can experience chamber music as chamber music was meant to be. Intimate and unfiltered, here you get very close to the artists and the music.
Free City Concert
Head down to the town centre and take your place together with hundreds of other music lovers. The starting signal for another lovely summer day in Risør, in the last week of June.
Tine with Friends
Tine Thing Helseth's intimate gathering. The concert that sells out fastest every year, which surprises no one. This is a Risør summer distilled to perfection.
Joseph Haydn: A portrait
This year's festival takes a closer look at this giant of Western music. So much of what we call classical music today was defined by Haydn.
The Pioneers
Haydn and Beethoven were trailblazers, but they weren't alone in being first with new ideas and approaches. Here we celebrate those who took the leap.
Film Music & Quiz
If you are under 25, you get in free. But only if you bring your competitive instinct and the people you trust most in a film music quiz.
Marius Neset Quintet
Last year, everyone was talking about Marius Neset's artistry and his week-long triumph in Risør. So we're inviting him back for an exclusive concert where he'll show us why he and his band own jazz-Europe right now.
Friday 26 June
Invitation from Bibiche & Arnfinn
The good folks of Risør open their homes for your chamber music pleasure. Here you'll get up close and personal with the artists and the music.
Free City Concert
Head down to the town centre and take your place together with hundreds of other music lovers. The starting signal for another lovely summer day in Risør, in the last week of June.
Tour de Risør
Three concerts at three different venues. Meet at the town square, and we'll stroll together through Norway's most beautiful summer town, enjoying a musical smorgasbord.
Mahler & Schumann
Two married couples, but quite different marriages. Yet posterity should be grateful that these four people found time to write music amidst everything else.
UNDER: Dance in Risør
Dancer Cecilie Lindeman Steen and cellist Audun Sandvik interplay on all the thoughts and feelings surrounding the notion of being alone.
Romeo & Juliet
The world's most famous lovers have inspired more music than we can perform. So we've selected our favorites from Prokofiev and Bernstein.
SkatteKammer'n
This is not a regular concert. It's the start of the weekend with the world's finest musicians letting loose and letting their hair down.
Saturday 27 June
At Home with Solveig & Bjørn
People of Risør open their homes so you can experience chamber music as chamber music was meant to be. Intimate and unfiltered, here you get very close to the artists and the music.
Free City Concert
Head down to the town centre and take your place together with hundreds of other music lovers. The starting signal for another lovely summer day in Risør, in the last week of June.
Close to Alexandra Dariescu
World star Alexandra Dariescu as close and intimate as only Risør can offer. Come hear what happens when technique and artistry merge into a higher unity.
Mr. Ping in Hollenderhagen
A penguin, an egg, and a box full of sounds. Mr. Ping has travelled all the way from the icy Antarctic to the summer warmth of Hollenderhagen to play for all children.
My choice is: ...
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson chose April, but what will this year's artists choose when asked to select their favorite composers and works?
Grand Concert on Stangholmen
Welcome to one of the country's great summer concerts! On an island in Risør's beautiful archipelago, there will be a celebration of folk music and symphony orchestra hand in hand.
Sunday 28 June
Text Meditation
A quiet moment in Risør Church in collaboration with Risør parish, where words and music are woven together to offer calm, presence, and reflection.
Seasons in the Main Square
One of classical music’s absolute superhits brings the concert to a close, and the build-up to the climax is filled with the loveliest seasons, from the cold north to the hot south.
The Festival Choir: Nelson Mass
Joseph Haydn and the Festival Choir are this year's choral highlight. Brilliant amateurs and professional musicians come together in the magnificent Frydendal Church.
Heart Strings
This year’s closing concert is inspired by an intricate emotional life between several great composers. The festival’s final concert plays on the most sensitive strings we have: the heartstrings.
