Grieg Academy

The Grieg Academy (Norwegian: Griegakademiet) is a disputed historical term used to refer to the higher education music programs in Bergen, Norway (birthplace of composer Edvard Grieg), as well as various collaborations across music institutions in Bergen. However, since 2016, due to mergers between several Norwegian institutions, the structure of Grieg Academy has changed and its remaining components are expected to be a doctoral research school (Grieg Research School in Interdisciplinary Music Studies) ^[1] and various research groups.^[2] Specifically, this is due to a merger between the University of Bergen’s Faculty of Humanities with the Bergen Academy of Art and Design, as well as a nearly simultaneous merger between Bergen University College and two other university colleges in western Norway: Stord/Haugesund University College and Sogn og Fjordane University College to become, in January 2017, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL)^[3][4][5] The music programs across HVL briefly became the largest music department in western Norway in terms of the number of full time teachers, but this has rapidly changed due to an unofficial policy of not replacing retiring teachers.

Due to an array of mergers, the background of "Grieg Academy" is complex. One prominent institution, which until recently has referred to itself in English as the "Grieg Institute" (or "Griegakademiet - Institutt for musikk" in Norwegian) is the music conservatory in Bergen, and a department of the University of Bergen (UiB). However, Norway's oldest music degree program,^[6] and the institution that has for the longest been called "Griegakademiet" in Norwegian - and "Grieg Academy" in English - is the music education department incorporated into Bergen University College (HiB), which in 2017 becomes part of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.^[7][8] "Griegakademiet" has appeared for many years in official documents and on street signs for all entrances as well as hallways to the former music department of HiB (in Landås), which was the largest music education program in Norway (with alumni of over 1000 music teachers), offering bachelor's and master's degrees and teacher certification. HiB is also the "Grieg Academy" that in 2002 hosted one of the world's largest music education conferences.^[9] The UiB music department, in contrast to the HiB music department, used to be called the "Bergen Conservatory," and now has a slightly larger number of full-time music faculty, emphasizes elite performance studies rather than music teacher education, and is more centrally-located in downtown Bergen.