Musicians from Oslo

Jon "Jo" Nesbø (Norwegian: [ˈjuː ˈnɛ̀sbøː]; born 29 March 1960) is a Norwegian writer, musician, and former football player and reporter. More than 3 million copies of his novels had been sold in Norway as of March 2014, and he had sold over 50 million copies worldwide by 2021, making him the most successful Norwegian author of all time. His work has been translated into more than 50 languages.
Known primarily for his crime novels featuring Inspector Harry Hole, Nesbø is also the main vocalist and songwriter for the Norwegian rock band Di Derre. In 2007 he released his first children's book, Doktor Proktors Prompepulver (English translation: Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder). The 2011 film Headhunters is based on Nesbø's novel Hodejegerne (The Headhunters).

Ragnar Sigurd Ulfung (born 28 February 1927) is a Norwegian operatic tenor. Described in the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians as "a brilliant actor with an incisive voice", he was particularly known for his portrayals of Herod (Salome) and Mime (Der Ring des Nibelungen). He is also an opera director. Amongst the productions he has directed was a complete Ring cycle for the Seattle Opera.
Ulfung was born in Oslo and studied there and in Milan before making his debut in Let's Make an Opera (Oslo, 1950). He made a successful debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in 1958 as Canio in Pagliacci and remained a member of the company until 1984. However, he also made guest appearances abroad. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 12 December 1972 as Mime in Siegfried and went on to sing 93 performances there between 1972 and 1993. In 1975 he appeared in Ingmar Bergman's celebrated film of Mozart's The Magic Flute in the role of Monostatos. He was appointed Hovsångare in 1976.
In 2015, Ulfung at age 88 sang Altoum in Turandot at Dalhalla with i.a. Nina Stemme and Lars Cleveman.

Frank Weylert (né Johansen; 27 June 1921 – 25 December 2007) was a Norwegian singer and actor.

Bjarne Arnulf Nerem (31 July 1923 in Oslo, Norway – 1 April 1991 in Oslo), was a Norwegian jazz musician (tenor saxophone, alto saxophone and clarinet) among the foremost soloists in Norwegian jazz. He was in the tradition of Lester Young, Stan Getz. Nerem achieved international recognition for his performances.

Finn Einar Mortensen (January 6, 1922 – May 23, 1983) was a Norwegian
composer, critic and educator.Mortensen was born in Oslo. His parents were publisher Ernst Gustav Mortensen (1887–1966) and Anna Marie Damnæs (1886–1960). Mortensen grew up in a publishing environment and it was at first expected that he would go into his father's publishing firm, Ernst G. Mortensens Forlag A/S. He studied harmony with Thorleif Eken (1900–1955), composition with Klaus Egge and with Niels Viggo Bentzon at The Royal Danish Academy, as well as the piano and double bass at the Oslo Conservatory of Music. He also participated in the Darmstadt summer school and in the classes conducted by Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Studio für Elektronische Musik in Cologne.The first public presentation of one of Mortensen's compositions was the Trio for Strings, Op. 3, which was played at the Young Nordic Music Festival in Oslo in 1950. In April 1954 he had his debut as a composer, along with Øistein Sommerfeldt. He was the leader of the group Ny Musikk, a Norwegian advocacy group for contemporary music, between 1961 and 1964, and between 1966 and 1967. From 1963-73, he was a music critic in Dagbladet, and he was also for many years correspondent for the major German magazine Melos. When the Norwegian Concert Institute was established in 1968, he became the institution's first director. From 1970 onward, he taught at the Oslo Conservatory of Music, becoming Norway's first professor of composition in 1973.
Rolf Wallin, Jon Mostad, Lasse Thoresen, Terje Bjørklund and Synne Skouen are among his students.
Until about 1953, Mortensen's music was mostly influenced by neoclassicism and expressionism. It later assimilated twelve-tone and aleatoric influences, creating what Mortensen termed a "neo-serial" style. From a point of departure in neo-classicism he became deeply involved with serial techniques. In Norway, Mortensen's works are still regularly performed by leading orchestras. In the rest of the world, however, he is less well-known.

Liv Glaser (born 23 September 1935 in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian pianist, music teacher, and professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music, the daughter of violinist Ernst Glaser and pianist Kari Marie Aarvold Glaser, and married 1971 to director of culture Carsten Edvard Munch (1927–2005).

Alf Cranner (25 October 1936 – 3 March 2020) was a major Norwegian folk singer, lyricist and painter, considered by many to be the pioneer of the Norwegian folk music wave of the 1960s. The citation for the award of Evert Taube Memorial Fund Grant 1994, to Cranner states: «Det är motiverat att anse honom som sin tids fader för den norska viskonsten» (It is motivated by the regard of him as the father of the Norwegian folk music genre). He is known for several popular folk music interpretations and beautiful folk tunes, including these: Å, den som var en løvetann with lyrics by another great Norwegian folk singer and lyricist Alf Prøysen (1914–1970), Bare skrap and Den skamløse gamle damen with lyrics by Klaus Hagerup and Sjømannsvise with the text of Harald Sverdrup. Among Cranner folk songs with his own lyrics is Båt til lyst and Hambo i fellesferien two of the best known. The folk song Din tanke er fri, is Cranner translation of the German Die Gedanken sind frei.

Knut Nystedt (3 September 1915 – 8 December 2014) was a Norwegian orchestral and choral composer.

Anne-Marie Ørbeck (1 April 1911 – 5 June 1996) was a Norwegian pianist and composer.

Robert Dankwart Leo Riefling (17 September 1911 – 1 July 1988) was a Norwegian classical pianist and pedagogist. He was regarded among Scandinavia's leading pianists, and toured all over the western world. He was a Professor in Copenhagen from 1967, and in Oslo from 1973.