Norwegian conductor Cathrine Winnes has worked with all the symphony orchestras of Sweden and Norway. In addition to her regular work with the standard symphonic repertoire, she has been praised for her brave and unusual programming – including both rarely performed music of the romantic era and forgotten jewels of the 19th century, for instance music by composers like Lili Boulanger and Grażyna Bacewicz. She has also premiered several contemporary works.

Winnes is since 2015 chief conductor and artistic leader of the Swedish Wind Ensemble, a position that in 2018 was extended; currently lasting to the 2021/22 season. Together they have recorded all of Stravinsky’s music for winds (Nilento, 2017) with Peter Jablonski as piano soloist.

Over the years, Cathrine Winnes has worked with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark. In opera she has conducted at the Royal Swedish Opera, the Estonian National Opera and the Gothenburg Opera.

Other recent highlights of Cathrine Winnes include her Finnish debut in Tampere Philharmonic, her South African debut in the philharmonic orchestras of Johannesburg and Durban and as music director and conductor of the opera “The Snow Queen” by Benjamin Staern, at Malmö Opera in Sweden.

Furthermore, she has now been widely recognized as a broadcaster, in the double capacity of both conductor and TV-presenter. “She Composes Like a Man” is the title of Winnes’ ground breaking TV-series in four episodes and a filmed concert, with Winnes conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The TV show deals with hidden orchestral music and the women that composed it. “She Composes Like a Man” is currently running on SVT, the Swedish national broadcasting company. The series will later in 2019 be broadcast in the rest of Scandinavia. In addition to hosting the show, Winnes has contributed in developing the idea and manuscript.

Winnes is looking forward to multiple re-invitations the coming season. Among them the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Norrköping and Helsingborg. She will conduct the prestigious Nordic Council’s Art Award, to be broadcast by SVT, the “Nutcracker” at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, as well as making her conducting debut at the Norrlands Opera in Sweden.

Cathrine Winnes holds a diploma degree in conducting from the Norwegian Academy of Music, where she studied with prof. Ole Kristian Ruud, and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she studied with the legendary Jorma Panula.