The Nordic Guitar
An exploration of the Nordic voice through the guitar
What does the Nordic landscape
sound like through the guitar?
With Nordic Guitar, Faroese guitarist and composer Alvi Joensen embarks on an ongoing artistic exploration of contemporary Nordic music for the classical guitar. Moving between existing repertoire and newly commissioned works, the project seeks to uncover possible connections between the diverse musical voices of the Nordic region – not by defining a Nordic style, but by allowing one to emerge through the music itself.
The project was launched in the summer of 2026 at the Faroese contemporary music festival Summartónar, with works by Sunleif Rasmussen and Finnur Karlsson alongside the world premiere of Joensen’s own Guitar Sonata (2026). These first works form the beginning of an expanding repertoire that will gradually bring together composers from across the Nordic countries.
At the heart of Nordic Guitar lies a fascination with the particular relationship between the instrument and the Nordic musical imagination. The guitar is intimate yet extraordinarily colouristic; fragile yet capable of remarkable depth. Its physical limitations invite invention, while its vast palette of timbres offers composers an almost orchestral world within a single instrument.
For Joensen, the project also reflects a central principle of his artistic identity: to move between heritage and innovation, between performer and composer, and between the local and the international. His Faroese background provides a distinctive point of departure, while his life and work in Sweden place him within a broader Nordic artistic context.
As the project develops, Joensen will expand the repertoire through further collaborations with Nordic composers and, ultimately, new commissions created specifically for the project. In doing so, Nordic Guitar is not simply documenting an existing repertoire – it is helping to shape the repertoire of tomorrow.
The result is conceived as an evolving body of work: a musical map of the Nordic region seen through six strings, where established voices meet new ones, where geography becomes sound, and where the guitar becomes a lens through which a contemporary Nordic identity can be heard.