Embrik Snerte (born 1974) began his musical career as a trumpet student in the Haugen School Music Corps in Bø in Vesterålen. At the age of 10, he moved to Oslo and discovered the bassoon and electric bass. After studying music at Foss, he went on to the Østlandets Musikkonservatorium (Eastern Norway Conservatory of Music) and then the Royal Academy of Music in London. His most important bassoon teachers have been Eirik Birkeland and Rachel Gough.
During his studies, Embrik helped start Ensemble Ernst, which is still very active, highly regarded, and a winner of the Spellemannsprisen award, and releases albums on the LAWO label. On his own and with Ernst, Embrik has commissioned works from a long list of Norwegian composers.
In addition to contemporary music, Embrik is one of the few bassoonists who improvises. He has delivered exuberant bassoon playing on albums by deLillos, Lars Andreas Haug, and Anja Garbarek, among others, in KORK, the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra, and the Wind Ensemble, and plays in the star-studded Trygve Seim Ensemble and Stian Carstensen's Musical Sanatorium. He also plays electric bass as often as he can.
Embrik has previously been employed by the Opera Orchestra and the Armed Forces Music Corps of Northern Norway, and has toured extensively with orchestras such as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestras.
Embrik is currently alternate principal bassoonist in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK), plays with Oslo Sinfonietta and Ensemble Ernst, and lives in Kolsås with his partner and two children.
