Biography
Bolette Roed (1979) graduated from the advanced solo performance class of the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, March 2004, and since then, her solo career has brought her to festivals and concert scenes all over Europe, Asia and the US. In addition to her studies in Copenhagen, Bolette also attended the Conservatoire National Superieur Musique et Danse de Lyon. In parallel, she graduated as a medical doctor from the University of Copenhagen.
Soon after her debut, Bolette was appointed Artist-in-Residence of the Danish National Radio and in 2011 she was nominated for the Nordic Council’s Music Prize. Furthermore, she received the Grand Prize of Jacob Gade Foundation in 2003 and the esteemed “The Danish Music Critics Prize 2014”. She was furthermore part of The Danish State Art Councils “Young Elite” 2014 program.
Bolette is an all-embracing musician, working not only with the classical repertoire for recorder, but also with improvisation, folk and world music. Her repertoire ranges from medieval through renaissance and baroque to contemporary music and she has world premiered a large number of works. As part of her innate curiosity, Bolette is constantly striving to expand the musical playground of the recorder. She works with many different instrument combinations and styles, including innovative co-operations with DJ’s, jazz musicians and the theatrical stages.
Bolette has toured as a soloist with the baroque orchestra Arte dei Suonatori since 2004, has appeared as soloist with Concerto Copenhagen, the Danish National Chamber Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Danish Orchestra. Furthermore, she often performs with her own ensembles, Alpha (trio with Peter Navarro-Alonso, organ/former saxophone and David Hildebrandt, percussion) Concert Pastoral (duo with Poul Høxbro, galoubet & tambourin), Elephant House Quartet (with Aureliusz Golinski, violin; Reiko Ichise, gamba and Allan Rasmussen, harpsichord), the Roed//Borregaard Duo and Sarbak//Roed Duo.
Bolette is the founder of Copenhagen Baroque Festival, inaugurated in 2019. In previous years she was involved in the management of Midsommerbarok, a baroque Music festival in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen. Finally, she is teaching the recorder at the Royal Danish Academy of Music since 2009.
Bolette’s most recent release, “Vivaldi’s Seasons” (Pentatone), is a collection of concertos arranged for recorder with Arte dei Suonatori, larger than Vivaldi’s original four. She has recently recorded with the aforementioned Elephant House Quartet and Alpha ensembles, respectively “Telemann’s
Garden” (Pentatone) and “J. S. Bach Goldberg Variations Recomposed by Peter Navarro-Alonso” (Dacapo). In addition to a solo double album of J. S. Bach sonatas and partitas (Ondine). Earlier recordings and featured appearances include: “Royal Recorder Concertos” with Arte dei Suonatori (Dacapo), “Early & Late” with Gáman trio (Dacapo) “Alpha”, “Through the Looking Glass” (Dacapo) and “Alpha World” (Gateway) with her trio Alpha, “A Joker’s Tale” with Paradox (BIS-CD) and “Bach harpsichord concertos” (Concerto Copenhagen, CPO).