Kristian Oma Rønnes (1991) started to play the bassoon at the age of 5 (“Fagottino”), and he got his first lessons from his father Robert Rønnes. Autumn 2007 he won the audition for being a participant on the Norwegian Academy of Music’s “Talent Program”, the very same year he also became the Academy’s first guest student as a bassoonist. From 2010-2014 Kristian studied his Bachelors at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Prof. Dag Jensen. From 2014-2017 he studied his Masters with Prof. Ole Kristian Dahl in Germany at “Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Mannheim”. During his masters he was also hospitating to “Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía” in Madrid to study with Prof. Klaus Thunemann. Kristian has also had lessons with bassoonists such as Sergio Azzolini, Stefano Canuti, Matthias Rácz, Roger Birnstingl, Martin Kuuskmann, Gustavo Núñez, Audun Halvorsen, several wind players from Berlin Philharmonic, the oboist Heinz Holliger, and more. 

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As a soloist Kristian's international debut was with Antonín Jiránek's  (1712-1761) Bassoon Concerto no. 3 in F major in Steinfurth (Germany) at the age of 14 (April 9th 2006), with Rogaland Youth Symphony Orchestra from Norway. Among his most recent international soloistic appearances are Egil Hovland's bassoon concerto "Agnus Dei" for bassoon & choir and Dana Wilson's bassoon concerto "Avatar", both pieces Kristian performed in Germany. Not long after he re-premiered Michael Gotthard Fischer’s (1773-1829) Bassoon Concerto in F-Major at the ADAMS Festival in the Netherlands. (A concerto discovered by, restored by and published by Kristian). He also performed Sæverud's Bassoon Concerto with the Norwegian Youth Orchestra in Stavanger Concert House. Kristian has gotten several compositions dedicated to him (approximately 50x), which he has premiered. Among the composers are: Federico Maria Sardelli (Italian), Filip Sande (Norwegian), Pablo Queipo de Llano (Spanish), Kohei Kondo (Japanese), Quinn Mason (American), Giorgio Pacchioni (Italian), Robert Rønnes (Norwegian), Sevag Derghougassian (Lebanese), Marcus Paus (Norwegian), Dubravko Žerjal (Croatian), and more. All the composers and their pieces can be seen / heard at "Dedications".

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As an orchestral bassoonist Kristian has played with several professional orchestras. Today he is the Principal Bassoonist in The Baltic Opera, in Gdansk (Poland). In 2016 he had a contract as the Principal Bassoonist of  South Denmark Philharmonic, and a contract with Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Kristian has also played with The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Deutsche Philharmonie Merck (Germany), NorrlandsOperan (Sweden), The Icelandic Opera,

Kurpfalz Philharmonie (Germany), Kammerphilharmonie Mannheim (Germany), Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces, Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester (Germany), The Norwegian Wind Ensemble, Poznan Philharmonic (Poland), Poznan Opera (Poland), Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra, Szczecin Opera (Poland), Opera Leśna Sopot (Poland), Sinfonietta Cracovia (Poland), and more. The first time Kristian played with a professional orchestra was with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (Norway) in 2005, he was then 14 years old.

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As a chamber music performer Kristian is playing together with Pracownia Bassoon Ensemble. This ensemble has already gotten a wide international attention, and recently received the Golden Price at the Berliner International Music Competition (2019), and received a special prize for their High Distinction in Vienna International Music Competition (2020).

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Beside being a bassoonist, Kristian is also productive as a composer, and his compositions, arrangements and restored works have been published by several publishers from different nations. Among his publishers are: ”National Library of Norway” (Norway), ”Music House Publishing A/S” (Norway), ”TrevCo Music Publishing” (USA), ”Emerson Edition Ltd” (England), "Trübcher Publishing" (England), ”Cantando Musikkforlag AS” (Norway) and "KOR Publications". The last mentioned is Kristian’s own publishing company.

Kristian’s most reputed work so far is "The Expanded Bassoon Register"; in this book he has expanded the bassoon’s register and added his own fingering chart for the new extremely high and low register. This book is already in use as educational material on several universities across the world, and is published by KOR Publications.

 

He has worked closely with the bassoon manufacturer Bernd Moosmann for further developing the technique of the bassoon, which has resulted in an instrument with a lot of new possibilities which can be seen on the site "My Bassoons". His most reputed discovery / add is the high G key. Kristian has also worked with Georg Rieger to make a new reed-shape, which is now available in Rieger's shop. The shape is named "KOR-Shape". More information can be found here:  "Reed Shaper".