The initial idea for LIFE came to Mari Samuelsen around the time her first child was born, and she recorded the album while pregnant with her second. The sheer beauty of her playing is the thread that runs through all eleven tracks. She hopes LIFE will speak to many listeners, whether by stirring childhood memories or by chiming with emotions they have experienced as new parents, watching a child discover the world. “I play music because I want to tell stories,” she says. “They have something personal – but I want them to be relatable for as many people as possible.”
In Mari Samuelsen’s musical universe, there are no barriers between the music of contemporary composers like Max Richter, Caroline Shaw, and Philip Glass, and that of Bach and Beethoven. With her breathtaking artistry, adventurous approach to programming, and emotionally charged style of playing, backed by immaculate technique and a drive to defy traditional expectations, she inspires a global audience.
In demand worldwide as a concert soloist and known for her imaginative artistry in curating her own concert programs, Mari Samuelsen has performed at leading venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Paris’s Philharmonie and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Geneva’s Victoria Hall, the Tonhalle Zurich, London’s Barbican Centre, and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Recently, she has performed with the Orchestre National de Lyon and appeared at the Berlin Philharmonie, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Radio France Festival in Montpellier, Verbier Festival, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and in Ottawa, Canada. She has also collaborated with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Slovak Philharmonic at the Viva Musica! festival in Bratislava, the Casco Philharmonic in Belgium, and at the Wonderfeel Festival in the Netherlands. The upcoming 2024/2025 season will take her to France, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Poland, and Ireland, among other countries.
Mari works regularly with British composer Max Richter, performing as a soloist in concert renditions of his Vivaldi Recomposed, Memoryhouse, and Voices. She appeared as a soloist on Deutsche Grammophon’s world premiere recording of Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works as well as performing November as part of the Yellow Label’s DG120 concert at Beijing’s Forbidden City in October 2018. In February 2020, she took part in the world premiere of Richter’s Voices at the Barbican Centre in London. Highlights of the past season include performances with Max Richter and Hollywood star actress and performer Tilda Swinton at the Bluedot Festival in England, as well as at the All Together Now Festival in Ireland. Over the course of her career, Mari has worked with a wide range of artists, including electronic music artists Jeff Mills and Dubfire, and multimedia artist Philipp Geist.
As a soloist, Mari also appeared on the world premiere recording of James Horner’s Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra, released in 2015 on Mercury Classics (Universal Music). Her first solo recording, Nordic Noir, featured the kind of hauntingly atmospheric music known from TV series such as The Killing, The Bridge, and Broadchurch. Both albums were hits in the Norwegian pop charts. Her presence, popularity and impact among new audiences are remarkable, with her YouTube video of 'Summer' from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons amassing over 40 million views.
Mari Samuelsen is an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist. Her debut recording for the Yellow Label, MARI (2019) was lauded by Gramophone magazine for her ‘seriously impressive playing… hand-crafted precision.’ Her second album, LYS (2022), meaning 'light' in Norwegian, presents a bold new selection of dynamic and original music dedicated to and influenced by life and light. It features works by thirteen female composers, from Hildegard of Bingen to Caroline Shaw and Hildur Guðnadóttir, and includes new commissions for her from composers such as Hannah Peel, Anna Meredith, Laura Massoto, and MEREDI.
Mari’s third studio album, LIFE, inspired by her experience of becoming a mother, will be released on August 30, 2024. The album celebrates the unaffected joy of a child’s eye-view, as well as an adult’s potential for empathy and transformation. Rich in contemporary color and contrasts, the album will be available digitally and on vinyl, featuring music by Olivia Belli, Jóhann Jóhansson, Max Richter, Hania Rani, Nils Frahm, Ludovico Einaudi, Steve Reich, and Bryce Dessner.
A classically trained violinist, Mari Samuelsen studied with Arve Tellefsen and later at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo, followed by a nearly decade of studies with world-renowned professor Zakhar Bron at the University of the Arts in Zurich.
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