The Norwegian Wind Ensemble is by wide margin Norway´s oldest orchestral institution, and thus one of the world´s oldest in continuous operation. As an example, Lloyd´s List, arguably the world´s first newspaper, was founded in that same year; 1734. (Our early history can actually be traced all the way back to the early 1600s…). For those “in the know”, it is widely recognized as the centerpiece of Norwegian institutional musical history and culture.

For more than 260 years this orchestra was the regional military wind band within the Norwegian Army, based out of the looming blackened stone fortress of Fredriksten above Halden, a small but strategically important town, on the border to Sweden.

Older members of the orchestra, as well as our audiences, often talk about the unmistakable sound and sonic tradition of this orchestra, a sound that has been passed down through generations of careful ensemble grooming. A symphonic wind band so humble, homogenous and well balanced, that it more resembles a church organ with carefully blended stops.

In 2002 the military past was shed by parliamentary creed, and in January 2003, the orchestra rose out of the ashes as a phoenix, born again as a modernized civilian and civic trust: The Norwegian Wind Ensemble.

Today this unique symphonic wind band tradition continues, with one foot in the past, and the other in the present. Marching no more, The Norwegian Wind Ensemble carries tradition, by reinventing it. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.