For five decades Sigmund Groven has had an international career as soloist and composer. He was born in Norway into a musical family. With his mentor Tommy Reilly Sigmund appeared in concert in Europe and North America, and in 1976 they recorded a duo album.

Concerts at Carnegie Hall, Salzburg Mozarteum, Casals Hall, Tokyo, appearances with the Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Fields and the radio orchestras in Berlin, Munich, Brussels, and London are among the highlights of his career.

He has made more than 30 solo albums, some of which entered the charts in many countries. His recording of Henning Sommerro’s Concertino for harmonica and orchestra has now been nominated for a GRAMMY Award in the US.

Several composers have dedicated their works to Sigmund Groven, who is himself an award-winning composer with an output of more than 350 works.

He has given master-classes in Europe, North America, and Asia. From 2018 he is harmonica professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

Sigmund has received many awards, and in 2015 he was appointed Knight of the First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St.Olav by H.M. King Harald V of Norway. 

”In the right hands the lowly mouth-organ can be an instrument of great beauty and sophistication. Sigmund Groven, like Tommy Reilly and Larry Adler before him, makes full use of the wide range and tonal expressions that the harmonica is capable of. His musicianship is superb, and he now unquestionably reigns supreme as one of the finest exponents of the harmonica in the world.” (Sir George Martin

Ivar Anton Waagaard is Associate Professor of Accompaniment at the Norwegian Academy of Music.

He studied with Liv Glaser and Kaare Ørnung, and with Albert Ferber in London.

He has toured throughout Norway, in a number of European and Asian countries, and in the US, with Sigmund Groven and other major Norwegian artists. He has performed a number of times at the Bergen International Festival, and has also appeared at several other festivals in Norway.

From 1995-2007 Waagaard was the regular accompanist for the Queen Sonja International Music Competition, and he has served as repetiteur at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet.

He has participated in hundreds of radio and TV broadcasts, contributed to several dozen recordings, played music for films and radio and TV theatre, and also served as orchestra pianist for the Norwegian Radio Orchestra on numerous occasions. His experience as a pianist also includes a variety of genres within cabaret, revue, and other forms of musical theatre.

During the last few years Waagaard has recorded on CD classical Norwegian songs with opera singer Svein Bjørkøy, American cabaret songs with singer Tora Augestad, a Grieg Album, “Classical Harmonica”, and “Songs for Harmonica” with Sigmund Groven, Norwegian music for two pianos with pianist Jorunn Marie Bratlie, and two solo albums: one with George Gershwin’s complete piano music, and the recent release is “Film Music for the Piano”.