Grieg Academy - Significance of Bi-Institutional Context

Significance of Bi-Institutional Context

Although the scenario of a shared name might appear to suggest competing interests (and indeed there was resistance to a full merger proposed in the 1990s), several instructors now teach music concurrently at both institutions, and a healthy partnership is evident between musicians and programs at these two schools which have rather different emphases. According to the history explained in Norwegian on the Grieg Academy-UiB’s official website, “towards the end of the 1980s, the conservatory faced major restructuring, and a government report recommended closer cooperation with the University of Bergen. In the autumn of 1995, Nina Grieg's 150th birthday and 90 years after Torgrim Castberg first opened the Music Academy, the Conservatoire was founded as an ‘institute’ at the University of Bergen, and ‘Grieg Academy’ was established as a ceiling (or umbrella ...) of all music education programs under both the University of Bergen and Bergen University College.” Also, according to a 1996 report from the website of University of Bergen, “The Grieg Academy is a partnership between the University and Bergen University College who has since earlier been offering a major in music education. This academic partnership rests on three pillars: music pedagogy at the former teachers college and applied/creative music and musicology at the University.” Due to both marketing strategies and inter-institutional politics, the Grieg Academy-UiB has in recent years increasingly taken a public stance implying that it is "the" Grieg Academy, yet for those who know this history it remains undeniably clear that The Grieg Academy actually continues to be spread across two institutions, University of Bergen and Bergen University College, with some forms of collaboration. The name Grieg may be traced to Norway's most famous composer Edward Grieg, a native son of Bergen, and the tradition of naming music schools after famous composers is evident across Europe, including the Sibelius Academy, Liszt Academy, and Mozarteum, to name but a few prominent examples.