Halldis Rønning was born in Bergen, Norway in 1978 into an artist family. She started playing the violin at the age of 7, and when she first conducted an orchesta at the age of 14, she decided to follow the path of conducting. Allready at the age of 18 she got "the talentprice of the year" in Norway, given by Vladimir Ashkenazy for her conducting skills.
Then followed violin studies at the Grieg Academy in Bergen (1997-99), the Conservatory of Amsterdam (1999-2002) and at The Norwegian State Academy of Music in Oslo (2002-2004) where she also joined the conductingclass.At the same institute she took her master degree in orchestral conducting from 2002-2004 with the highest mark possible.
After her studies Rønning conducted all the symphony orchestras of her own country, all the windbands, contemporary music ensembles and several theater- and musical tv- productions. She also worked with orchestras and ensembles in Sweden, the Netherlands and Vietnam. From 2011-2013 she was assistent conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra where she studied with some of the worlds greatest conductors.
She conducted Bartok's Bluebeards Castle during her assistantship on short notice and
with great success.
Rønning has a great interest
in contemporary music and she has
conducted
meny worldpremiers and
contemporary pieces in concert and festivals.
To be mentioned the "Samtidsfest" with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in 2018 where she did only contemporary music and organized a group improvisation with the orchestra. And the opening of the Only Connect Festival in 2018 where she conducted the Norwegian Premiere of "Megalithes" by Gerard Grisey.
In 2019 she got two major grants, one from Morten Eide Pedersens memorial fund to make music and visuals for her project »Watermusic» and the other from the Norwegian Cultural Council to compose and lead a MultimediaProject called «Obsidian» which will be premiered at the Reykjavik Art Festival in 2022.
For 2021 she will also conduct Puccini’s Tosca at the Kristiansund Opera and guest again The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.