Biography

Halvor F. Melien (baritone) is a concert singer who performs throughout Europe. His repertoire ranges from sixteenth-century music to brand-new works, and he sings with baroque ensembles, symphony orchestras and ensembles for new music. He has devoted particular time to the music of Bach.

Halvor has worked with all the Norwegian symphony orchestras and with ensembles such as Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, BBC Philharmonic, B'Rock Orchestra, Concertgebouw Kamerorkest, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Barokkanerne and many others. He has appeared at festivals including Bachfest Leipzig, the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence and Musikwoche Hitzacker.

Halvor has given the first performances of works written for him by Ørjan Matre, Lisa Streich, Eivind Buene, Øyvind Mæland and others. He has also performed new works at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Eclat in Stuttgart, the Münchener Biennale and Ultima. He has worked with Oslo Sinfonietta since 2011.

The Lied is important to Halvor. He sings Schubert's Winterreise, Schumann's Dichterliebe and songs by Brahms, Mahler and Webern. Several of the new works he has premiered relate to the Lied tradition, among them Eivind Buene's Schubert Lounge, which has been performed in Germany, Norway and Denmark.

In 2015–16 he was a member of the soloist ensemble at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet. Together with the conductor Julia Selina Blank he leads JSB-Ensemble Oslo, which brings early and new music together and has given Norwegian premieres of works by Grisey and Sciarrino.

He has taken part in several recordings, among them Kurt Weill's Die sieben Todsünden with the Oslo Philharmonic, John Frandsen's Requiem with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Knut Vaage's Høgsongen, Bent Sørensen's St Matthew Passion (BIS) and Christmas cantatas with Barokkanerne (LAWO).

In September 2026 he sang the baritone solo in the first performance of Kjell Habbestad's Nunc dimittis at the funeral of King Harald V in Oslo Cathedral. Halvor studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music and holds the Norwegian government's working grant for artists for 2024–2027.