Important Young Talents Scholarship

Bendik Sells, originally from Fosen, now living in Oslo and a student at the composition department at the Norwegian Academy of Music, was awarded the "Young Talents" scholarship both last year and the year before. - The Young Talents Scholarship has been very useful and important to me. It has allowed me to buy a new work computer and a couple of new instruments, and I have been able to pay for travel to and from gigs. It has also made it a little easier to survive as a student in Oslo, he says. It is not easy to make a living from composition in Norway. That is why Sells believes that both TONO's and other scholarship schemes are absolutely necessary for young people who write music: - No matter how skilled you are, it is difficult to get into the market. That is why many are completely dependent on scholarship schemes in order to be able to invest in equipment, for example. Most people are quite poor for a few years before, for example, they are discovered by a relevant workplace - or by the media. Before that, enormous amounts of practice are needed to lay a foundation, and then you need support, otherwise it will not work. When this short interview is done, the young composer talent has just come out of a rehearsal room where he is working on the finishing touches of a 20-minute dance performance together with two dancers/choreographers. Sells is the composer of the performance, and the project is being done through the Norwegian Academy of Music and the School of Contemporary Dance. The performance will be held in Rom for Dans in Oslo on March 15 (more info at the bottom of the page). In parallel with this and his composition studies, he is also writing a piece for the Norwegian Girls' Choir and several other chamber ensembles. His big, long-term dream is to write orchestral music. Sells has just become too old for the Young Talents scholarship's age limit of 21, and is therefore content this year to encourage other young composers to apply to TONO for a scholarship: - Definitely. Anyone with a burning desire to have music as a livelihood should apply for this scholarship!