The #huninvester award goes to Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir

The grant is a new collaboration between the festival and DNB and will be a development grant of NOK 100.000, which will go to a performer in the establishment phase of their career, who has shown a significant will and uncompromising commitment to their own artistry. 

Guitarist, vocalist and composer Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir will be the first recipient of the scholarship. - Her ambitions to make a mark internationally, while at the same time not losing her footing in the national arena - combined with a unique and personal expression with full control over instrument and voice - make her a natural recipient of the #huninvester scholarship - writes the jury, which has consisted of representatives from Kongsberg jazz festival and DNB. 

Oddrun Lilja Jonsdottir has made a name for herself in several contexts, both as a solo artist and leader of her own band, and as a band member with an open and hungry approach to music from all corners of the world, in collaboration with musicians such as Bugge Wesseltoft and Paal Nilssen – Love. Her release of the work "Marble" garnered rave reviews with a roll of 6 in Dagsavisen, featured on lists of the year's best albums and was also nominated for the award "Work of the Year" by the Norwegian Composers Association.

- Through the new #huninvesterer grant, DNB and Kongsberg Jazzfestival together want to focus on the capital gap between women and men that we see both in private finance, but also in the music industry, says Aina Lemoen Lunde, marketing director at DNB. This is also in line with the festival's work to improve gender balance and diversity in the industry, and the festival committed itself in 2021 to Key Change. The #huninvesterer scholarship will help to set a clear agenda for this, and the prize will be awarded at Bebop & Business – the meeting place of business, culture and politics during the jazz festival.

Photo by Birgit Fostervold