Oslo Jazz Festival 2020's opening concert is with Oslo Jazz Ensemble, with Arild Andersen, Ellen Andrea Wang and Kalle Moberg as guest soloists. Torun Eriksen is also one of the soloist, but can’t be counted as a guest after performing more than 20 concerts, recording live albums from Bremen and TV recordings with this ensemble during the past 3 years. Torun has now composed brand new music and with lyrics in Norwegian for the Oslo Jazz Ensemble.

Oslo Jazz Ensemble is a natural and very appropriate opening concert for this year's festival.

This year's program shows the breadth of the festival's musical identity and what’s happening in the jazz scene in and around the city of Oslo. In such a context, there is hardly a better way to mark the opening of the festival than with the Oslo Jazz ensemble.

Oslo Jazz Ensemble is a brand new name, but the ensemble has been around for 20 years under the name Ensemble Denada. In the ensemble you’ll find a number of the most prominent jazz instrumentalists in Eastern Norway. The ensemble has visited most major festivals in Europe, in addition to appearances in the USA, the Middle East and India.

The material presented with Arild Andersen is from a previous collaboration, while the songs and arrangements performed with Ellen Andrea Wang, Kalle Moberg and Torun Eriksen will have a world premiere this day.

The concert is broadcast live on NRK Jazz.