Bjørnar Habbestad (b. 1976) is a Norwegian flautist, composer, curator, and researcher whose work interweaves performance, installation, and experimental sound practices. Trained in Bergen, London, Oslo and Amsterdam, he performs internationally as a soloist and ensemble musician across acoustic and electroacoustic formats.
Recent projects include the premieres of Antti Auvinen’s flute concerto Ventilation Beat (2023) with the Avanti Chamber Orchestra and Lene Grenager’s Off Soundings with Caput Ensemble (2023); the staging of In C by Sasha Waltz / Terry Riley with Nagelhus Schia Productions at the Norwegian Opera (2023); and Symphonie magnétophonique (2022) with the ensemble LEMUR at the Ultima Festival. Other notable performances include the solo part in Luigi Nono’s monumental IO at the Bergen International Festival, Das Atmende Klarsein at Ultima, the world premiere of Alwynne Pritchard’s theatrical flute concerto DONT TOUCH ME! at Borealis, and the development and premiere of Natasha Barrett’s Traversing a Small Town by Night for flute and electronics.
Since 2006, Habbestad has been a core member of LEMUR, creating and performing large-scale collaborative works alongside Hild Sofie Tafjord (horn), Lene Grenager (cello), and Michael Duch (bass). Drawing on a shared vocabulary from experimental music, noise, contemporary composition, and jazz, the quartet operates both as a tightly knit improvising unit and a conceptually driven composition collective. LEMUR has released five studio albums, the most recent of which received a nomination for the Spellemann Award (Norway’s Grammy equivalent).
From 2017 to 2025, he served as Artistic Director of nyMusikk, Norway’s principal platform for contemporary music. His programming for the Only Connect festival was widely praised for its intellectual breadth and curatorial curiosity. In parallel with this work, Habbestad runs plus3db, a record label dedicated to experimental sound, which has released over 30 titles to date—further extending his commitment to sonic exploration and artistic collaboration.
Habbestad holds a PhD in performance practice from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where his research investigated collaborative processes between composers and performers.