Submitted Photo Christina Larsen will travel to Norway this May to work with the Oslo Chamber Choir.

Raised in Minot, Christina Larsen came to Minot State University for its teacher education program and did foresee that she would end up in music.

“I came to MSU because I knew that they had a good education program and ironically, I wasn’t initially planning on majoring in music. I only wanted to do choir,” Larsen, a junior at MSU, said.

It was at the end of her senior year in high school when Larsen was connected with DeVera Bowles, the voice professor at MSU, that she considered her future in music.

When Larsen was in her sophomore year at MSU, she heard about an apprenticeship opportunity from Emerson Eads, a music professor at MSU.

“Last year Professor Eads mentioned to the choir that the Oslo Kammerkor Choir was coming here to perform during Hostfest and that we would have the opportunity to apply for this apprenticeship with them,” Larsen said.

The Oslo Chamber Choir was MSU’s Artists in Residence in the fall of 2023. After this opportunity, Eads wanted to create an ongoing relationship that would benefit students from MSU.

“The chance to work with this world-class Scandinavian choir, to make music with them, to live and rehearse around them in Oslo, Norway, is utterly fantastic,” Eads said. “I am so grateful to the generous donors who made this apprenticeship possible and for the generosity of the Oslo Chamber Choir and their director, Hakon Nystedt, for affording us this rare musical connection.”

The application process for the apprenticeship included a video audition with a foreign language song, an essay and a couple of letters of recommendations from professors. After applications were reviewed, Larsen received the news that she was chosen for the apprenticeship.

“What I am most looking forward to in Norway is getting to see more about how the Oslo Kammerkor works together to create such a unified, yet unique sound,” Larsen said. “Getting to listen to them in October was a magical experience, and I’m so excited to get to see more.”