Kari Nergaard Bleivik

Kari Nergaard Bleivik is a vocalist, composer, lyricist and music lecturer, born in Trondheim, Norway. She started studying music at an early age, and attended the music course at Heimdal upper secondary before moving to Inderoy and Sund Folk College to study at the jazz course. The following year she was rewarded a full scholarship at Sund to further her musical abilities and to take on some teaching responsibilities. She moved to Leeds in 1999 to study towards a BA in jazz, and in her year of graduation received the LCM award for jazz and popular vocals. In 2003 she gained her Masters Degree after studying at the advanced jazz programme. She is also a recent receiver of a writing grant from The Norwegian Fund for Lyricists. Kari has been teaching at the Leeds College of Music since 2002, giving singing lessons and teaching subjects like improvisation, ensembles, composition and aural skills. Also teaches vocals for Yamaha. She is also actively involved in the creative LIMA scene (Leeds Improvised Music Association) where she is on the board and appears in concert with a range of projects including The Sharkestra and LIMA orchestra. Her own main two musical projects are: -The guitar/voice/electronics duo Sonic Stories with guitarist Rune Mandelid. Their first album "Feels Like Night" was released on Vossajazz Records in April 2006. -The vocal quartet Royst with other singers Maria Jardardottir, Anna Stott and Cecilie Giskemo. Released the album "Nordic Initiative" in 2005, and tours regularly. Kari has toured and performed in Norway, USA, Mexico and England, and performed at festivals such as Moldejazz, Nattjazz, Vossa Jazz, Young Musicians Festival, FUSE Leeds and Bjørnsonfestivalen. Together with Royst she has also written comission music for a festival in 2005, recorded for radio, theatre and film, and taught vocal workshops at institutions such as Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, The Nordic Institute for Stage and Studio (NISS) in Oslo and a whole range of FE, HE and Community Colleges throughout Norway. In 2007 Royst did a collaboration project with world renowned saxophonist Iain Ballamy, Norwegian percussionist Thomas Stronen and the LIMA sax quartet. The project was supported by Leeds Jazz, LIMA, Jazz Yorkshire and The Norwegian Music Fund. In 2008 Royst reformed and performed several festivals in the UK, Sonic Stories expanded to become an octet and Kari organised the first ever LIMA festival, a 3 day contemporary music festival taking place in Leeds, UK. Kari is currently working on new musical projects such as the trio Vehere with Sean Foran (piano) and Joachim Badenhorst (clarinet)- look out for our debut album to be released autumn 2009 and Australian tour dates December 2009, a duo with double bass player Dave Kane, and a trio with Peter Lee (piano) and Matt Roberts (trumpet), as well as writing a shared comission work based on the music of Raymond Scott for the FUSE Leeds festival 2009.