Alma Kraggerud
Alma Kraggerud (2006) is an aspiring young musician with a deep passion to tell meaningful stories through art.
She began to play the violin at the age of five, and made her debut as a solist with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra when she was nine years old. Alma is currently studying a Bachelor of Music with Individual Concentration (FRIBA) at the Norwegian Academy of Music with the renowned pedagogue and violinist Peter Herresthal.
"Music and culture bring people together, and can help us to remind the joys if life, especially in difficult times."
Since Alma's early stage debut, she has performed as a soloist with a number of orchestras, such as the Arctic Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Montepelier National Opera and others.
In 2022, Alma won the renowned soloist competition Virtuos, and has also been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Norwegian Soloist Prize and the Øivind Bergh Memorial Prize. Alma has performed at a number of festivals - Arctic Chamber Music Festival, Nordland Music Festival, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Stavanger Chamber Music Festival and Purbeck International Chamber Music Festival, to name a few.
In addition to being a successful violinist, Alma also composes music, and in 2022 her piece "The Untold Myth" was perfomed by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. She has received an award from the Ånun Lund Rej Memorial Foundation for her creativity as a composer and musician in 2018. In the spring of 2025, Alma appeared on stage for the first time in an opera performance as the role of "the fiddle player" in Jon Fosse's "Asle and Alida" with music written by Bent Sørensen. The opera was performed in Bergen and Copenhagen, and was met with exellent reviews.
Through Podium, Alma wants to challenge today's expectations of perfectionism in classical music:"Music is first and foremost about telling stories. Music should contain meaning and create feelings, yet this is something this often forgotten. I strongly believe that Podium can give me the invaluable opportunity that I have dreamed of: telling stories through music and at the same time challenge the perfectionism, or even better, show that it no longer exists."
Alma plays a Stradivarius violin named "Ex – Karl Klingler" from Cremona (1720), generously loaned by Anders Sveaas' Allmennyttige Fond.
"Music is first and foremost about storytelling. Music should contain meaning and create emotions, yet this is something that is often downgraded. I strongly believe that Podium gives me an invaluable opportunity that I have dreamed of my whole life: Telling stories through music and at the same time showing that the brick wall of hopeless and insignificant expectations of perfection can be broken, or even better, that it simply no longer exists."
