1.
Bergen
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Bergen, historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Hordaland on the west coast of Norway. At the end of the first quarter of 2016, the population was 278,121. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway, the municipality covers 465 square kilometres and is on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are on Byfjorden, the city fjord, many of the extra-municipal suburbs are on islands. Bergen is the centre of Hordaland and consists of eight boroughs—Arna, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg, Ytrebygda, Årstad. Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s, according to tradition, the city was founded in 1070 by king Olav Kyrre, its name was Bjørgvin, the green meadow among the mountains. It served as Norways capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to trade between Northern Norway and abroad and it was the largest city in Norway until the 1830s when it was surpassed by the capital. What remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site, the city was hit by numerous fires over the years. The Bergen School of Meteorology was developed at the Geophysical Institute beginning in 1917, the Norwegian School of Economics was founded in 1936, from 1831 to 1972, Bergen was its own county. In 1972 the municipality absorbed four surrounding municipalities and became a part of Hordaland county, the city is an international centre for aquaculture, shipping, offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national centre for higher education, media, tourism and finance. Bergen Port is Norways busiest in both freight and passengers with over 300 cruise ship calls a year bringing nearly a half a million passengers to Bergen, almost half of the passengers are German or British. The citys main team is SK Brann and the citys unique tradition is the buekorps. Natives speak the distinct Bergensk dialect, the city features Bergen Airport, Flesland, Bergen Light Rail, and is the terminus of the Bergen Line. Four large bridges connect Bergen to its suburban municipalities, Bergen is well known for having a mild winter climate, though with a lot of precipitation. In December - March, the difference between Bergen and Oslo can be up to 30 degrees Celsius, despite the fact that both cities are at approximately 60 degrees North. The Gulf Stream keeps the sea relatively warm, considering the latitude, the city of Bergen was traditionally thought to have been founded by king Olav Kyrre, son of Harald Hardråde in 1070 AD, four years after the Viking Age ended with the Battle of Hastings. Modern research has, however, discovered that a settlement was established already during the 1020s or 1030s
2.
Robert Schumann
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Robert Schumann was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era, Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing. Works such as Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and his writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, a Leipzig-based publication which he jointly founded. In 1840, Schumann married Friedrich Wiecks daughter Clara, against the wishes of her father, following a long and acrimonious legal battle, which found in favor of Clara and Robert. Clara also composed music and had a concert career as a pianist. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to an asylum, at his own request. Diagnosed with psychotic melancholia, Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having recovered from his mental illness, Schumann was born in Zwickau, in the Kingdom of Saxony, the fifth and last child of Johanna Christiane and August Schumann. Schumann began receiving general musical and piano instruction at the age of seven from Johann Gottfried Kuntzsch, the boy immediately developed a love of music and worked at creating musical compositions himself, without the aid of Kuntzsch. Even though he often disregarded the principles of composition, he created works regarded as admirable for his age. At age 14, Schumann wrote an essay on the aesthetics of music and also contributed to a volume, edited by his father, titled Portraits of Famous Men. While still at school in Zwickau, he read the works of the German poet-philosophers Schiller and Goethe, as well as Byron and the Greek tragedians. His most powerful and permanent literary inspiration was Jean Paul, a German writer whose influence is seen in Schumanns youthful novels Juniusabende, completed in 1826, and Selene. Schumanns interest in music was sparked by seeing a performance of Ignaz Moscheles playing at Karlsbad and his father, who had encouraged the boys musical aspirations, died in 1826 when Schumann was 16. Neither his mother nor his guardian thereafter encouraged a career in music, in 1828 Schumann left school, and after a tour during which he met Heinrich Heine in Munich, he went to Leipzig to study law. In 1829 his law studies continued in Heidelberg, where he became a member of Corps Saxo-Borussia Heidelberg. During Eastertide 1830 he heard the Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, in July he wrote to his mother, My whole life has been a struggle between Poetry and Prose, or call it Music and Law. During his studies with Wieck, it has claimed that Schumann permanently injured a finger on his right hand
3.
Georg Andreas Bull
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Georg Andreas Bull was a Norwegian architect and chief building inspector in Christiania for forty years. He was among the architects in the country, and left his mark on Norwegian building history both as a creative architect, and through his measurement studies and archeological research. Bull was born in Bergen, as a son of pharmacist Johan Storm Bull and he was married to Emilie Constance Hjelm, and father of architect Henrik Bull. He had nine children, and died in Bestum in Ullern in 1917, Bull received drawing lessons in Bergen by the German architect and painter Franz Wilhelm Schiertz from 1843 to 1845. He then studied engineering at the Polytechnische Schule in Hannover from 1846 to 1850. After his engineering studies he made studies of the Haakons Hall in Bergen, other buildings from the Middle Ages. He studied architecture at the Berliner Bauakademie from 1855 to 1856 and he started working as an architect in Kristiania in 1857, where his first significant work was Christiania Dampkjøkken. After a major fire in Kristiania in 1858 he started planning the villa area Homansbyen and he was architect for Statsbanene from 1863 to 1872. Bulls designs ranged from churches, villas and train stations to interiors, among his works are the two train stations in Oslo, Oslo Vestbanestasjon and Østbanen, and altogether about sixty train stations throughout the country. He designed railway stations of the Krøder Line, including the Krøderen Station, Bull was a board member of the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Norwegian Monuments from 1853 to 1864, and of Christiania Theatre from 1866. He was chairman for Selskabet for Christiania Byes Vel from 1904 to 1908 and he was decorated Knight, First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1875, and was decorated Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog
4.
University of Oslo
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The University of Oslo, until 1939 named the Royal Frederick University, is the oldest university in Norway, located in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Until 1 January 2016 it was the largest Norwegian institution of education in terms of size, now surpassed only by the Norwegian University of Science. The Academic Ranking of World Universities has ranked it the 58th best university in the world, in 2015, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked it the 135th best university in the world and the seventh best in the Nordics. While in its 2016, Top 200 Rankings of European universities, the university has approximately 27,700 students and employs around 6,000 people. Its faculties include Theology, Law, Medicine, Humanities, Mathematics, natural sciences, social sciences, Dentistry, the universitys original neoclassical campus is located in the centre of Oslo, it is currently occupied by the Faculty of Law. Most of the other faculties are located at the newer Blindern campus in the suburban West End. The Faculty of Medicine is split between several university hospitals in the Oslo area, the university was founded in 1811 and was modeled after the University of Copenhagen and the recently established University of Berlin. It was originally named for King Frederick VI of Denmark and Norway, the university is informally also known as Universitetet, having been the only university in Norway, until 1946 and was commonly referred to as The Royal Fredericks, prior to the name change. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in the universitys Atrium, from 1947 to 1989, since 2003, the Abel Prize is awarded in the Atrium. Five researchers affiliated with the university have been Nobel laureates, in 1813, The Royal Frederiks University was founded in Christiania, a small city at that time. Circumstances then changed dramatically one year into the commencement of the university, however, independence was somewhat restricted, as Norway was obliged to enter into a legislative union with Sweden based on the outcome of the War of 1814. Norway retained its own constitution and independent state institutions, although royal power, at a time when Norwegians feared political domination by the Swedes, the new university became a key institution that contributed to Norwegian political and cultural independence. The main initial function of The Royal Frederick University was to educate a new class of civil servants, as well as parliamentary representatives. The university also became the centre for a survey of the survey of culture, language, history. The staff of the university strove to undertake a range of tasks necessary for developing a modern society. Throughout the 1800s, the academic disciplines gradually became more specialised. Classical education came under increasing pressure, Education, health services and public administration were among those fields that recruited personnel from the universitys graduates. Research changed qualitatively around the turn of the century as new methods, scientific theories and it was decided that teachers should arrive at their posts as highly qualified academics and continue academic research alongside their role as teachers
5.
Henrik Wergeland
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Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist. He is often described as a pioneer in the development of a distinctly Norwegian literary heritage. Though Wergeland only lived to be 37, his range of pursuits covered literature, theology, history, contemporary politics, social issues and his views were controversial in his time, and his literary style was variously denounced as subversive. He was the oldest son of Nicolai Wergeland, who had been a member of the constituent assembly at Eidsvoll in 1814, the father was himself pastor of Eidsvold and the poet was thus brought up in the very holy of holies of Norwegian patriotism. Wergelands younger sister was Camilla Collett and younger brother major general Joseph Frantz Oscar Wergeland, Henrik Wergeland entered The Royal Frederick University in 1825 to study for the church and graduated in 1829. That year, he became a symbol of the fight for celebration of the constitution at 17 May and he became a public hero after the infamous battle of the Square in Christiania, which came to pass because any celebration of the national day was forbidden by royal decree. Wergeland was, of course, present and became renowned for standing up against the local governors, later, he became the first to give a public address on behalf of the day and thus he was given credit as the one who initiated the day. His grave and statues are decorated by students and school children every year, notably, the Jewish community of Oslo pays their respects at his grave on 17 May, in appreciation of his efforts to allow Jews into Norway. In 1829 he published a volume of lyrical and patriotic poems, Digte, første Ring, in this book we find his ideal love, the heavenly Stella, which can be described as a Wergeland equivalent to Beatrice in Dantes poem Divina Commedia. Stella is in fact based on four girls, whom Wergeland fell in love with, the character of Stella also inspired him to endeavour on the great epic Skabelsen, Mennesket og Messias. It was remodeled in 1845 as Mennesket, in these works, Wergeland shows the history of Man and Gods plan for humanity. The works are clearly platonic-romantic, and is based on ideals from the enlightenment. Thus, he criticizes abuse of power, and notably evil priests, in the end, his credo goes like this, Heaven shall no more be split after the quadrants of altars, the earth no more be sundered and plundered by tyrants sceptres. Bloodstained crowns, executioners steel torches of thralldom and pyres of sacrifice no more shall gleam over earth, the spirits of the earth now glow in freshened hearts. Freedom is the heart of the spirit, Truth the spirits desire, earthly spirits all to the soil will fall to the eternal call, Each in own brow wears his heavenly throne. Each in own heart wears his altar and sacrificial vessel, lords are all on earth, priests are all for God. At the age of twenty-one he became a power in literature, meanwhile, he was tireless in his efforts to advance the national cause. He established popular libraries, and tried to alleviate the poverty of the Norwegian peasantry
6.
Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
7.
Den Nationale Scene
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Den Nationale Scene is the largest theatre in Bergen, Norway. Den Nationale Scene is also one of the oldest permanent theatres in Norway, founded under the name Det Norske Theater in 1850, the theatre has roots dating back to its founding on the initiative of the Norwegian violinist Ole Bull. The theatre was founded to develop Norwegian playwrights, in 1909, The National Theatre moved into the new theater building at Engen. The current theater building was designed by Einar Oscar Schou, king Haakon VII of Norway and Queen Maud were in attendance. It soon became apparent that the building was too small, in 1913 the company bought Ekserserhuset Jonsvoll to use it as a warehouse. In 1920, an extension was built to the northwest, over the years the building has undergone major changes, extensions, renovation, restoration and stage technical modernization. The foyer and the hall were destroyed during the Second World War, the Theatre experienced a pre-war high point during the period 1934-39 under the leadership Hans Jacob Nilsen. Especially noteworthy was the 1935 premiere of the play Vår ære og vår makt by Nordahl Grieg, in 2001 the building was brought almost to its original shape. Since 1993, the theatre has been state property, komediebakken og Engen, femti års teatererindringer. Avmaktens dramatikk, Bergensprosjektet på Den Nationale Scene 1986–1996
8.
Edvard Grieg
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Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, the Edvard Grieg Museum in Troldhaugen is dedicated to his legacy. Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway, on 15 June 1843 and his parents were Alexander Grieg, a merchant and vice-consul in Bergen, and Gesine Judithe Hagerup, a music teacher and daughter of Edvard Hagerup. The family name, originally spelled Greig, has Scottish origins, after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Griegs great-grandfather, Alexander Greig, traveled widely, settling in Norway about 1770, and establishing business interests in Bergen. Edvard Grieg was raised in a musical milieu and his mother was his first piano teacher and taught him to play at the age of six. Grieg studied in schools, including Tanks Upper School, Tanks School. In the summer of 1858, Grieg met the eminent Norwegian violinist Ole Bull, Bull recognized the 15-year-old boys talent and persuaded his parents to send him to the Leipzig Conservatory, the piano department of which was directed by Ignaz Moscheles. Grieg enrolled in the conservatory, concentrating on the piano, and enjoyed the many concerts and he disliked the discipline of the conservatory course of study. An exception was the organ, which was mandatory for piano students, in the spring of 1860, he survived two life-threatening lung diseases, pleurisy and tuberculosis. Throughout his life, Griegs health was impaired by a left lung. He suffered from respiratory infections, and ultimately developed combined lung. Grieg was admitted many times to spas and sanatoria both in Norway and abroad, several of his doctors became his personal friends. In 1861, Grieg made his debut as a concert pianist in Karlshamn, in 1862, he finished his studies in Leipzig and held his first concert in his home town, where his programme included Beethovens Pathétique sonata. In 1863, Grieg went to Copenhagen, Denmark, and stayed there for three years and he met the Danish composers J. P. E. Hartmann and Niels Gade. He also met his fellow Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak, who became a good friend, Nordraak died in 1866, and Grieg composed a funeral march in his honor. On 11 June 1867, Grieg married his first cousin, Nina Hagerup, the next year, their only child, Alexandra, was born. Alexandra died in 1869 from meningitis, in the summer of 1868, Grieg wrote his Piano Concerto in A minor while on holiday in Denmark. Edmund Neupert gave the concerto its premiere performance on 3 April 1869 in the Casino Theater in Copenhagen, Grieg himself was unable to be there due to conducting commitments in Christiania
9.
University of Music and Theatre Leipzig
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The University of Music and Theatre Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Leipzig is a public university in Leipzig. Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn as the Conservatory of Music, the institution includes the traditional Church Music Institute founded in 1919 by Karl Straube. The music school was renamed ″Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy″ after its founder in 1972, in 1992, the Theaterhochschule Hans Otto Leipzig. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the composer and Music Director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and he was sponsored by a high civil servant of the Kingdom of Saxony, the Oberhofgerichtsrat Heinrich Blümner, who provided King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony with 20,000 Thaler. The music schools home was in the first Gewandhaus, the musicians of the Orchestra were obligated to act as teaching staff, a tradition that was unbroken until German reunification in 1990. In 1876 the school got permission to change its name to Königliches Konservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig, the new premises at Grassistraße 8 were inaugurated on December 5,1887. They were built 1885-1887 by the architect Hugo Licht in the quarter of Leipzig. The benefactor was the pathologist Justus Radius, not until 1924 was the Royal Conservatory renamed into Landeskonservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig, six years after the fall of the Kingdom of Saxony. In the summer term of 1938343 male students were enrolled at the Landeskonservatorium and this made the Conservatory the fourth biggest music school in the German Reich after the Universität der Künste Berlin, the music school of Cologne and the school for music and theater of Munich. The Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk David was the director from 1939 until 1945. The school was again renamed June 8,1941 to Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Musikerziehung und darstellende Kunst, Public College for music, musical education, in 1944 the school remained closed due to the Second World War. The new Great Hall was inaugurated 2001 and 2004 awarded by the Bund Deutscher Architekten, the colleges second premises were opened 2002 and theres an orchestra academy in co-operation with the Gewandhausorchestra since 2004 in order to support top musicians. The Institute has a prominent role in Germany because of Max Reger, Kurt Thomas and it offers programs in church music, chorus conduction and organ. It offers research masters in those subjects as well, the Institute of Church Music was founded by Karl Straube in 1921 and 1926 it became part of the Saxon Evangelical-Lutheran Church. As of 2008 the adjustment to the Bachelors degree and Masters degree system is being organized, the education program with major in school music is since the winter term of 2006/07 already adapted to the Bologna process and as such leads to a bachelors degree. The programs of the Institute of Church Music were changed to the beginning of the winter term 2008/09, the school has its own symphony orchestra under the conduction of Ulrich Windfuhr. There were 260 international students enrolled at the time and they come above all from Poland, Russia, South Korea and China. Thirteen of them are scholarship holders of the German Academic Exchange Service, the Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre organizes many music contests
10.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania /ˌpɛnsᵻlˈveɪnjə/, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle, Pennsylvania is the 33rd largest, the 5th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The states five most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, the state capital, and its ninth-largest city, is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 140 miles of shoreline along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The state is one of the 13 original founding states of the United States, it came into being in 1681 as a result of a land grant to William Penn. Part of Pennsylvania, together with the present State of Delaware, had earlier been organized as the Colony of New Sweden and it was the second state to ratify the United States Constitution, on December 12,1787. Independence Hall, where the United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution were drafted, is located in the states largest city of Philadelphia, during the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the south central region of the state. Valley Forge near Philadelphia was General Washingtons headquarters during the winter of 1777–78. Pennsylvania is 170 miles north to south and 283 miles east to west, of a total 46,055 square miles,44,817 square miles are land,490 square miles are inland waters, and 749 square miles are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States, Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary. Cities include Philadelphia, Reading, Lebanon and Lancaster in the southeast, Pittsburgh in the southwest, the tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, the northeast includes the former anthracite coal mining communities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston City, and Hazleton. Erie is located in the northwest, the state has 5 regions, namely the Allegheny Plateau, Ridge and Valley, Atlantic Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and the Erie Plain. Straddling two major zones, the majority of the state, with the exception of the corner, has a humid continental climate. The largest city, Philadelphia, has characteristics of the humid subtropical climate that covers much of Delaware. Moving toward the interior of the state, the winter climate becomes colder, the number of cloudy days increase. Western areas of the state, particularly locations near Lake Erie, can receive over 100 inches of snowfall annually, the state may be subject to severe weather from spring through summer into fall. Tornadoes occur annually in the state, sometimes in large numbers, the Tuscarora Nation took up temporary residence in the central portion of Pennsylvania ca. Both the Dutch and the English claimed both sides of the Delaware River as part of their lands in America
