Bjørnar Habbestad holds a PhD in Performance Practice from the Norwegian Academy of Music (2022).
The project Chasing the Collaborative. Critical studies of Performer Agency in Contemporary Flute Music questions how developments in musical materiality is connected to changes in the way composers and performers collaborate, searching for traces of collaborative practice within the creation and performance of modern flute music from different perspectives. Habbestad traces the history of the key click, one of the first novel instrumental techniques for flute, deepening his understanding of these developments through the analysis of extensive research interviews with flutist Roberto Fabbriciani. Finally, the findings from these two processes are operationalized in a sequence of performance-based research, in which Habbestad explores, experiments with and extends the different practices connected to the flute part of Luigi Nono’s Das atmende Klarsein.
Habbestads dissertation was assessed by an international committe consisting of Professor Paulo de Assis, the Orpheus Institute, Professor Georgina Born, University College of London and Associate Professor Arnulf Mattes, University of Bergen (Committee Chair). The thesis is available for download here.
In dialogue with this research process Habbestad developed and premiered Natasha Barrett’s work Transversing a small town by Night for flute and electronics (Sentralen, Oslo), established the international flute quartet Circle Flute with Mike Schmidt, Bettina Berger and Marieke Franssen, composed and premiered Top/Bottom/Up/Down for flautist and electronics (ZKM, Karlsruhe) as well as the site-specific sound installation Shade and silence waken up as one (Bergen kunsthall).
Read more about the project here or read some of the articles available at Academia.