Njord Kårason Fossnes (b. 2001) is a Norwegian violist and composer based in Copenhagen, with a growing international career. He is praised for his versatility and exceptional ability to communicate through music. Njord studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston under the renowned Kim Kashkashian, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen with Asbjørn Nørgaard, known from the Danish String Quartet.
Njord is a prizewinner in several national and international competitions, including the Midgard Competition and the Virtuoso & BelCanto International Music Competition. In 2021, he won second prize in the inaugural Hindemith International Viola Competition. At age 17, he made his international breakthrough as the youngest participant in the prestigious ARD Competition in Munich, where he also competed in 2023, performing and leading his own arrangement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. He has also won the soloist competition at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Walton’s Viola Concerto and was recently awarded the Reger Prize at the International Instrumental Competition Markneukirchen.
Njord has performed as a soloist in Bartók’s Viola Concerto, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 5 with Peter Tilling and HSO Munich, as well as Walton’s Viola Concerto with Giordano Bellincampi and the DKDM Symphony Orchestra, and Kurt Atterberg’s Suite for Violin, Viola and Orchestra with violinist Gustav Rørmark and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
In addition to his solo work, Njord is a passionate chamber musician and regularly performs at renowned chamber music festivals in the US and Europe, including Marlboro Music Festival, Cleveland ChamberFest, Caramoor Evnin Rising Stars, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Fjord Classics, IMPULS Festival, and Festival & Friends. In 2023, he also competed with Quartet Luminera in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, where they won the silver medal.
Njord has been an avid composer from a young age. His works have been commissioned and performed at Ose Kammerspel in Sandane and the PULSAR Festival in Copenhagen. In 2018, his orchestral work Etude was performed by the Oslo Philharmonic.
He plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini viola, Piacenza 1743, generously on loan from the Anders Sveaas Charitable Foundation.