Benedikte Sofie Ribe

Benedikte Sofie Ribe is a Norwegian singer and stage artist. In February 2022, she was permanently employed as a singing teacher in a 50% position at the Department of Classical Music and Music Pedagogy at the University of Agder.

Benedikte was born in Kristiansand. After Toneheim College of Music, she moved to Germany and studied singing with Wagner soprano Leah Frey Rabine for two years. She also studied at the University of Agder and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Benedikte has studied with the singing teachers Birte Myhrstad, Julia Paszty and Toril Carlsen. In 2018, Benedikte completed the song pedagogy study at Barratt Due.

As a singing teacher, Benedikte's most important task is to build up people and artists. She is keen to stimulate the students to be their own supervisors so that they can develop ownership of artistic choices and perhaps life choices in general.

Benedikte is a very versatile singer with wide experience. She has been awarded several prizes, including the Amalienborg prize and Kristiansand municipality's cultural prize for young artists. Benedikte also won the soloist prize in the "Young Talents" competition and was successful as a soloist with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. Benedikte has sung with several Norwegian orchestras and works closely with professional musicians in Norway and abroad. In May 2023, she will premiere a work composed by Bjørn Kruse at a festival in Vienna. Benedikte has been a chorist in several operas, including Tosca, Madame Butterfly, The Magic Flute, Carmen and Fledermaus

During the international Opera Workshop Lidal North in 2017, Benedikte made her debut in the role of "Anne Egerman" in A little Night Music at Den Norske Opera & Ballett. More recently, she has collaborated with the prominent contemporary composer Helge Iberg in the development of the chamber opera "Det Lille Livet".

Today, Benedikte is active  in artistic development work, including in collaboration with the Oslo Academy of Arts and the Norwegian Academy of Music. In collaboration with Nils Harald Sødal and Silvia Moi, Benedikte has been involved in developing the performance "Sceneinflammation, about opera and stuff". This is a performance in which the singing students at UIA are well included. For Benedikte, it is important to give the singing students solid and broad experience within the performing arts landscape.