Soprano Laura Loge’s expertise in Nordic song and chamber music comes from a long path of study of Nordic languages, cultures and music. With ancestry from the south-western coastal area of Norway, she pursued her interest by first attending Skogfjorden, Concordia Language Villages’ Norwegian village, and returning later as a counselor. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College where she studied Norwegian and vocal performance. Her studies culminated in a year of studying Nordic Art Song and chamber music at the University of Stavanger Conservatory of Music where she shared an apartment with her Norwegian relatives and absorbed the local cultures and dialects. While there she also sewed and embroidered her own bunad, which, in honor of her ancestry, is of Rogaland style with Bjerkreim inspired embroidery.
Laura’s expertise in Norwegian and Nordic vocal and chamber music has led her to soprano soloist performances of Grieg’s Incidental Music for Peer Gynt, Foran sydens kloster, Olav Trygvason, and numerous orchestrated songs, Neilsen’s Third Symphony, David Monrad Johansen’s Syv Sanger, Op.6, arranged for her and chamber orchestra, F. Melius Christiansen’s Norwegian-American Centennial Cantata, Alf Hurum’s Lilja, Lasse Thoresen’s Hagen, the U.S. premiere of Elfrida Andrée’s Suffrage Cantata, and Gerard Tonning’s opera Leif Erikson. Chamber works include selections by Agnes Ida Peterson, Anders Røshol, Knut Vaage, Abbie Betinis, Rebecka Ahvenniemi, Wolfgang Plagge, arrangements of Grieg’s songs with multiple instruments, and songs by Steven Luksan, Nathan Molvik, Laura Netzel and Efrida Andrée arranged for soprano and string quartet.
Her performances of Norwegian and Nordic art song have brought her across the US and Norway (including Grieg’s villa in Bergen), as well as live broadcasts on KING FM, All-Classical Portland, and Nordic Roots and Branches. Throughout 2025 she shared the stage in more than 42 individual events across both countries with pianist and composer Steven Luksan on Musical Migration, a program exploring works by Norwegian-American immigrants in commemoration of the bicentennial of Norwegian immigration. Musical Migration will be recorded and released in 2026. She has produced several other albums of Nordic art song, including Breaking the Language Barrier: Songs in Norwegian and Danish, Composed by Foreigners, and Songs and Piano Music of Edvard Grieg, Op. 33 & 66. Her next album, Der Skreg en Fugl, featuring previously unrecorded songs by Norwegian women with pianist Angela Draghicescu will be released in the near future.
In addition to performing, Laura presents workshops, masterclasses, and individual coaching in Norwegian language and repertoire. She has given scholarly presentations about Norwegian song at conferences for the Society of Scandinavian Studies, Crossings and Connections 2025, the International Edvard Grieg Society, and the Cascade Song Festival, the Edvard Grieg Society of the Great Lakes. Laura provided the expertise for the Norwegian section of a three-volume Nordic song anthology entitled Midnight Sun, compiled and edited by Mimmi Fulmer and published by Subito Music and is available here. For that she translated, transliterated and provided spoken recordings of 16 selected Norwegian songs. Workshops and masterclasses include the Grieg Academy, the University of Tromsø Conservatory of Music, the University of Stavanger Conservatory of Music, Whitman College, St. Martin’s University, Luther College, Winona State University, the University of Portland, Central Washington University, Linfield College, Westby High School, Tuddal Montessori School, and Aquillon Music Festival.
Laura is the founder and president of the Northwest Edvard Grieg Society, Artistic Director of Nordic Chamber Music, Music Series Coordinator at Saint Mark’s Cathedral, and former Artistic Director of the Mostly Nordic Chamber Music Series. With the Northwest Edvard Grieg Society and Nordic Chamber Music she has produced more concerts than she can count, including performances of all 180 of Edvard Grieg’s songs in seven concerts with two singers (including herself) and one pianist in both Portland and Seattle. Through that project, Laura also translated all of Grieg’s Norwegian and Danish (and many German) songs into English.
She received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Saint Olaf College where she also completed degree-qualifying coursework in Norwegian, her Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory, and studied Nordic Art Song and Chamber Music at the University of Stavanger Conservatory of Music.
View Laura’s Guide to Norwegian Pronunciation for singers
- Laura is available for performing, coaching, workshops, masterclasses and teaching.
- Laura has her own bunad, which she made while living in Norway.
- Laura is fluent in Norwegian and is well versed in its numerous dialects.
- Laura has studied Nordic music extensively, both classical and traditional.
- To listen to Laura sing in Norwegian, please visit here.