Biography (read more)
Kristina Vårlid was born in 1994 in Stavanger, Norway, receiving her first guitar at age six and beginning lessons at eight. She began her bachelor’s degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2013 before transferring to the Prince Claus Conservatoire in Groningen, the Netherlands, completing it cum laude with the highest mark in 2017. She went on to earn an artist diploma at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo.
Vårlid won first prize at the Antwerp International Guitar Competition in 2017, was named best music student in the Netherlands the same year, and was a finalist at both the Koblenz International Guitar Academy Award and the Tokyo International Guitar Competition in 2018. She has performed with orchestras including the Bergen Philharmonic and Stavanger Symphony, released two albums on Simax Classics, and became a professor of guitar at the Prince Claus Conservatoire at age 24. Since 2025 she has also taught at the University of Agder in Norway as a PhD fellow in artistic research.
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