About

Madara Eleonora Mežale is a Latvian-born clarinettist currently based in Oslo, Norway. Driven by deep curiosity and a commitment to explore the intersection of tradition and innovation, she finds herself performing across classical and contemporary music genres as a solo and chamber musician. She strives to bring classical music into dialogue with contemporary society, ensuring its continued relevance and resonance with modern audiences. Besides being an interpreter of classical music, she is advocating for new music through performances and collaborations with young composers. Madara Eleonora is a member of the contemporary music ensemble AREPO, which aims to set a new standard for what a 21st-century quartet concert can entail.

Madara Eleonora is currently pursuing her master's degree in classical music performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) where she is studying with Professor Björn Nyman. After finishing her studies at the Emīls Dārziņš Music School in Latvia in 2020, she moved to Norway to take bachelor studies at NMH with B. Nyman and pursue her career as a classical musician. Ever since, she has participated in orchestral programs like Ungdomssymfonikerne and UngFil and has performed in various chamber music concerts both at the Academy and outside, including collaboration with Wolfgang Plagge and the Holocaust Center in Oslo (2023), as well having appearance in Oslo Chamber Music Festival (2023) where she will return again in August 2025 to perform together with Franz and Hector Kraggerud. 

During her musical studies in Latvia, besides actively performing as a chamber musician in concerts both in Latvia and Estonia, Madara Eleonora has appeared as a soloist with the Latvian Youth Symphony Band and Symphonic Orchestra of Emīls Dārziņš Music School, with which in 2019 she performed Double Concerto for clarinet and viola by Max Bruch. Later in the same year, she performed it in Rostock with Youth Orchestra Riga-Rostock. Further, in November 2023, she performed arrangement of Three Romances by Clara Schumann for clarinet and string orchestra together with the chamber orchestra of the Norwegian Academy of Music under the leadership of Henning Kraggerud.

Besides her studies at NMH, Madara Eleonora has been taking lessons with professors and performers like Yehuda Gilad, Hermann Stefannson, Andreas Sundén, Harri Mäki, Shirley Brill among others.