14–17 October 2026 | Mo i Rana and Mosjøen, Nordland
A Nordic orchestral project for young musicians from Norway, Sweden and Finland
In October 2026, around 80 young musicians from Norway, Sweden and Finland will gather on Helgeland for Nordic Youth Music Initiative – Helgeland 2026– a large cross-border music project initiated by NordSync Project together with Rødøy Orkesterforening, local kulturskoler and voluntary music organisations, and partners in Sweden and Finland.
The project brings together young musicians from Helgeland, Lycksele, Storuman and Kuhmo for several intensive days of orchestra rehearsals, workshops, masterclasses, concerts and social activities in Mo i Rana and Mosjøen.
But Nordic Youth Music Initiative is not intended as a traditional orchestra course.
It is a Nordic meeting place where young and amateur musicians, professional performers, teachers, kulturskoler and voluntary cultural organisations come together across national and regional borders. The aim is not only to prepare a concert, but to create new friendships, exchange experience and build lasting connections between cultural environments in Nordland, Västerbotten and Kainuu/Kajanaland.
Young musicians from communities across Helgeland meet participants from Sweden and Finland who share many of the same interests and challenges: long geographical distances, relatively small local music environments and the need for strong networks in order to create ambitious artistic opportunities.
By bringing these environments together, the project gives young musicians an opportunity to experience that their local orchestra, kulturskole or music association is part of a much wider Nordic cultural community.
Young musicians and professionals on the same stage
A central principle of the project is that young participants work side by side with professional musicians.
During the gathering, the participants take part in full orchestra rehearsals, sectional rehearsals, workshops and masterclasses led by professional performers and instructors. The professional musicians are not simply teachers standing outside the ensemble – they become part of the same musical process.
This creates a mixed orchestra where different generations, levels of experience and musical traditions meet. Around 80 young musicians from the three countries participate, together with professional musicians and instructors.
The project therefore combines education and artistic production in one process: the participants develop their ensemble skills and gain experience of professional rehearsal methods while simultaneously preparing a major public performance.
Equally important are the informal parts of the programme. Meals, travel, social activities and the time between rehearsals give young people from different countries an opportunity to get to know one another beyond the orchestra.
For NordSync, this social dimension is an essential part of cross-border cultural cooperation. A successful project should not only produce a concert; it should create relationships that can continue afterwards.
Nordisk Suite – a new work for a Nordic orchestra
The artistic centrepiece of the project is the world premiere of Nordisk Suite, a new work by composer Bodvar Drotninghaug Moe from Nesna.
The work is written for Hardanger fiddle, nyckelharpa and mixed orchestra, combining classical orchestral writing with Nordic folk-music traditions, improvisation and musical colours inspired by the northern landscape.
The composition is particularly well suited to the philosophy behind Nordic Youth Music Initiative.
Two instruments strongly associated with different Nordic folk traditions stand at the centre of a large ensemble consisting of young musicians, amateurs and professionals. Norwegian and Swedish musical traditions meet within a newly composed work, while musicians from three countries create the performance together.
The project also marks Bodvar Drotninghaug Moe’s 75th anniversary and celebrates his long-standing contribution to musical life in Northern Norway. Pressemelding: Nordic Youth Music Initiative – Helgeland 2026.pdfPDF
Duo Nøkkelfele
The solo parts are performed by Duo Nøkkelfele:
Sunniva Herland Monstad – Hardanger fiddle / violin
Hsiang-Yin Hsiao – nyckelharpa / violin
Both musicians have classical backgrounds combined with a strong interest in Nordic folk music. Their collaboration creates a musical encounter between two distinctive Nordic string instruments: the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle and the Swedish nyckelharpa.
The soloists also play an important role in the educational side of the project. Through rehearsals and direct musical interaction, the young participants encounter folk-music traditions not as something presented separately from classical ensemble playing, but as part of the same artistic production.
From Helgeland to Sweden and Finland
The Norwegian participants come from several communities on Helgeland, including young musicians connected to Rana, Rødøy, Vefsn, Hemnes, Lurøy and Alstahaug.
They are joined by participants from Lycksele and Storuman in Västerbotten and Kuhmo in Kainuu, Finland.
This geographical structure is an important part of the project.
NordSync has for several years been developing cooperation along the east–west axis that connects Northern Norway, northern Sweden and Finland. Nordic Youth Music Initiative turns this network into something tangible for young participants: several local music environments become one orchestra for a few intensive days.
The project is therefore also closely connected to NordSync’s wider work along Blå Vegen / E12. One of its long-term ambitions is to strengthen cultural cooperation across this corridor and develop new practical connections between organisations, teachers, musicians and young people in the three countries.
The first major project of NordSync Atlas
Nordic Youth Music Initiative is also the first major practical result of NordSync Atlas, the new direction within NordSync Project dedicated to youth, music education and cooperation with voluntary and non-profit cultural organisations.
NordSync Atlas grew out of NordSync’s increasing cooperation with orchestra associations, kulturskoler, youth ensembles and other locally rooted cultural environments in Norway, Sweden and Finland. The ambition is to connect these organisations across borders, create opportunities for exchange and develop practical models in which professional artists, educators, volunteers and young musicians can work together.
In that sense, Nordic Youth Music Initiative puts the ideas behind Atlas directly into practice. Organisations and young musicians from three countries are connected through one shared artistic project; professional competence is brought into local youth environments; and new relationships are created between communities along the Blå Vegen / E12 axis.
The aim is that these connections will continue long after the concerts are over – forming the basis for future exchanges, new projects and a stronger Nordic network for young musicians and the organisations that support them.
Strong local roots in Mo i Rana
Although the project is international, it has strong local roots.
Rana Kulturskole plays an important role in the organisation and implementation of the gathering, and the project coincides with the celebration of the kulturskole’s 55th anniversary.
Nordic Youth Music Initiative is organised through cooperation between NordSync Project, Rødøy Orkesterforening, local kulturskoler and voluntary associations, together with Swedish and Finnish partners.
This combination of local anchoring and international cooperation is central to the project model. Instead of creating a temporary international event detached from existing structures, NordSync works through the organisations that already support young musicians in their communities.
The result is a platform where professional artistic production, music education and voluntary cultural life reinforce one another.
Concerts in Mo i Rana and Nesna
The gathering culminates in public performances of Nordisk Suite.
The main concert takes place on Friday 16 October at 17:00 at Meyergården Spektrum in Mo i Rana, as part of Smeltedigelen Musikkfestival and the celebration connected to Rana Kulturskole.
A further performance follows in Nesna on 18 October, extending the project beyond the host city and allowing the Nordic ensemble to meet another part of the Helgeland cultural community.
At the concerts, young musicians from Norway, Sweden and Finland stand on the same stage as professional performers, the soloists of Duo Nøkkelfele and the composer himself.
The world premiere becomes, in this sense, more than the presentation of a new composition. It is the visible result of several days of cooperation between young people, teachers, professional musicians and organisations from three countries. The press release describes the performance as a shared celebration of music, youth and Nordic community.
More than a concert
Nordic Youth Music Initiative – Helgeland 2026 is ultimately about what happens around the music as much as what happens on stage.
It is about giving young musicians in northern and rural communities access to ambitious artistic experiences without requiring them to leave their own region.
It is about allowing a young musician from Helgeland to meet someone of the same age from Lycksele, Storuman or Kuhmo and discover how much they have in common.
It is about professional musicians sharing their competence directly with the next generation.
And it is about kulturskoler, voluntary organisations and professional cultural environments discovering practical ways to cooperate across national borders.
For NordSync, this is an important step in developing a stronger and more connected Nordic cultural environment in the north – one where young people are not simply the audience of future cultural life, but active participants in creating it.
A strong local partnership with Rødøy Orkesterforening
A central partner in the development and practical implementation of Nordic Youth Music Initiative – Helgeland 2026is Rødøy Orkesterforening. As NordSync’s local partner in Nordland, the association plays an important role in organising the project on the ground – connecting participants, kulturskoler and voluntary music environments across Helgeland, and contributing to the practical coordination that makes a gathering of this scale possible.
The collaboration between NordSync Project and Rødøy Orkesterforening has developed over several years and reflects an important principle in NordSync’s work: ambitious international projects become stronger when they are anchored in active local organisations. Through this partnership, Nordic cooperation is connected directly to the people and institutions already sustaining musical life in the region. Nordic Youth Music Initiative is therefore built not only as an international project visiting Helgeland, but as a project developed together with the local cultural community.
