Berit Cardas is a sought-after conductor, violinist and violist.
In addition to having a long track record as a soloist and chamber musician, she is also a versatile pedagogue, lecturer and conductor.
Cardas has studied at Ostlandets Musikkonservatorium, Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA. She has also taken conducting studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music and the University of Stavanger.
She has a great educational interest and teaches and gives master classes in violin, viola and chamber music, as well as larger preliminary projects for school children. More recently, she has also worked with orchestra management and she has already conducted Kork, BFO and OFO. This season includes, among other things, The Norwegian Air Force's music band, the Aktisk Philharmonic and the Oslo Philharmonic in the calendar.
She helped start the Vertavo Quartet in 1984 and together with this quartet has held over 2,500 concerts. Cardas has previously won the Spellemannsprisen and Diapason d'or, 1st prize in the Nordic Chamber Music Competition, 1st prize, the audience prize and the radio listeners' prize in the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. Chamber music is certainly closest to her, but she has also been a soloist with all the Norwegian symphony orchestras and has had great experiences as concertmaster in TSO and KORK.
A broken arm in the 1980s was an important turning point for Berit Cardas, because then she embarked on theater studies. Despite good years at music schools in Hannover, Germany and Minneapolis, USA, nothing has given her more useful knowledge and training. And the theatre, together with chamber music, has shaped her into the musician she is today. Cardas has also given lectures on children's experience of music and interaction, and the vital value of musical enjoyment (experience-expectation-recognition), i.a. during Music Learning Live Asia in Singapore. And she also gives lectures for companies on collaboration and motivation, the latest for the Oslo Police.
With her theater skills, she is a sought-after workshop leader with her unique approach to chamber music teaching.
Berit Cardas plays on a Lorenzo Storioni on generous loan from Dextra Musica.