Mari Samuelsen

Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen has enjoyed a remarkable rise on the international concert stage through a characteristic mixture of artistry and enterprise. For more than 25 years she has collaborated in duo with her brother, cellist Hakon Samuelsen. In 2015 they released their debut album, Pas de Deux, Mercury/Decca (Universal), the centrepiece of which was a new work written for them by the Oscar-winning composer, James Horner. It went directly to no. 1 in the Norwegian pop charts, the first classical album to do so in more than 20 years.

Mari Samuelsen is founder and artistic director of ‘A Christmas concert from Norway’ which she started together with her brother in 2003. She has also been artistic director of Yellow Lounge in Norway, bringing the Berlin-born club night to Oslo, keeping classical music in the mix at the forefront of contemporary art.

Her latest album, Nordic Noir, released on Decca in September 2017, went again straight to the top of the Norwegian pop chart (2nd place). Her upcoming and ongoing collaborations with leading composers of today, as well as electronic music artists such as Jeff Mills and Dubfire, puts Mari Samuelsen in a position as an artist who is thriving and new thinking, being innovative and reaching out to new audiences.

Samuelsen plays the “Duke of Edinburgh” Stradivarius 1724, generously on loan from Florian Leonhard Fine Violins, London.