# Tuva Halse

Tuva Halse (born 1999 in Molde, Norway) is an instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and arranger known for her lyrical jazz improvisations on violin, her refined melodic compositions, and as a founding member of the Fjordgata Records label.

## Biography

Tuva Karen Halse was born in Molde in 1999. She studies at the Bekkevoll Junior High School, then enters the Molde High School, where she attends the music programme. She turns to jazz violin when Arne Torvik [no], her piano teacher since the age of 13, introduces her to jazz, suggests her to use violin for this, and attracts her attention to the music of Mathias Eick. Listening to Ola Kvernberg at Moldejazz in 2016 is also a decisive experience which initiates her interest in jazz music, showing the diversity of ways a violin can be used. One of her first experience with a jazz orchestra is with the Lærlingan, a big band of Molde high school students led by Rolf Magnus Orø with which she plays for instance at Moldejazz in 2017. Halse claims a musical lineage with Adam Bałdych, and cites him as the musician who ultimately motivated her to become the musician who she is. Halse cites Chet Baker, Kenny Wheeler, Pat Metheny, Ola Kvernberg and Arne Torvik [no] as other influences. She defines herself as a melancholic musician playing "mountain jazz", and says that she "feels at home" in the sound of the complex Nordic jazz idiom.

## Career

Tuva Halse enters the Jazzlinja [no], a jazz training of the Conservatory in Trondheim at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2019, where she meets many of the musicians she will work with in the next several years, and graduates in 2022. At the Jazzlinja, Halse is part of the Magellan band, which tours in Norway in 2021 with the suite In Search Of. Her sound bears a strong classical music imprint, and is described by Tor Hammerø as having a light, bright, and highly transparent tone. Her improvisations are often described as lyrical and focus a lot of energy. Torkjell Hovland writes that she "creates spaces in the music" and "is concerned with the energy in pauses between the notes as much as the notes themselves". Halse is a multifarious artist who now pursues a career as an improviser, composer, arranger, band leader, and soloist; she has been invited or selected to participate in a large number of groups in the fields of jazz, folk, pop, rap and contemporary music. She is also active as a studio musician and in high school student training.
She develops her own projects, including the praised Bento Box Trio (Boxed, Somehow I Lost My Way), Tuva Halse Quintet (Two), and tuvahalseband (nemesis/cruel), and simultaneously contributes to many others on the Norwegian scene, including the Miriam Kibakaya Concept, Leon Røsten, Melting Pot, the Alex Ventling's Wavemakers, and OJKOS. She occasionally plays solo concerts and duets (with Mathias Eick, Tord Gustavsen, Peter Knudsen and Arne Torvik [no]).
In 2024 she tours with the quartet of Sverre Gjørvad and Ensemble Noor, and participates to the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra in a tour for a joint composition with the I LIKE TO SLEEP trio. The creation of the Reconnection suite for the OJKOS jazz ensemble at the National Jazz Scene [no] in November 2024 firmly establishes Tuva Halse as a leading jazz composer and arranger for large ensembles.

## Fjordgata records

Tuva Halse is one of the founding members of Fjordgata Records, an independent music label established in 2021.

## Discography
### As a leader

* Boxed, Bento Box Trio, Fjordgata Records (2022)
* Two, Tuva Halse Quintet, Jazzland Recordings (2023)
* nemesis/cruel, tuvahalseband, Fjordgata Records (2024)
* Somehow I Lost My Way, Bento Box Trio (with Mats Eilertsen and Sissel Vera Pettersen), Fjordgata Records (2024)

### As a co-leader

* Demring - November - I Puste (Singles) Duets with Ingrid Vingen Sunde (2018)

### As a group member

* Roots, Miriam Kibakaya Concept, Jazzland Recordings (2023)

### As a sidemusician

* Information Therapy, Jonas Ledang, Øra Fonogram (2020)
* Sara Fjeldvær, Sara Fjeldvær, Fjordgata Records (2021)
* The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Jonas Ledang, Øra Fonogram (2022)
* We Don't Imagine Anymore, Vestemøy Narvesen, Jazzland Recordings (2023)
* I Could Even Try To Change Your Mind, Leon Røsten, Spupz Night Crab Life (2023)
* After The Rain, Mathias Angelhus, Øra Fonogram (2023)
* she stole my art, audun (Audun Rørmark), Fjordgata Records (EP, 2024)
* Stars, Sara Fjeldvær, Fjordgata Records (2024)
* Reimaginations, Peter Knudsen, Skaleidoscope Music (2024)
* Intergalloptic Roundtrip, PHØNIX, Sonic Transmissions Records (2024)
* Hvor du kommer fra, Tobias Rønnevig, Boden Records (2024)
* A very merry Christmas (Live from Britannia Hotel), Liv Ellen, Øra Fonogram (2024)
* FRIHET I LENKER, Marstein [no], Def Jam Recordings Norway (2024)

## Documentary film

* TUVA, by Nadia Kukankova (2024): official selection of the Nordic/Docs Documentary Film Festival 2024

## Awards
### Talent prizes

* Drømmstipend (2017)
* Talentstipend, Handelsbanken (2019)
* TEFT-stipend, Sparebanken Møre (2022)
* Talentstipend, Sparebanken SMN (2022)
* #huninvesterer scholarship, DNB/Kongsberg Jazzfestival (2024)

### Competitions

* Jazzintro finalist (Bento Box Trio), Molde International Jazz Festival (2022)
* Selected to represent Norway as a Melting Pot artist (2023)
* Selected as a member of the OJKOS Orchestra for Jazz Composers (2023)
* Selected as an NTNU Ambassador [no] (starting in 2024)