New PFAF-Ambassador: Marcela Randem

Playing for a Future

Initiated by Alf Richard Kraggerud and originally part of Valdres Summer Symphony, it has supported young musicians from Bolivia, South Africa, Jordan, and Vietnam through educational programs in Norway. Since 2018, the organization has operated independently and became a foundation in 2022. It is funded by private donations, course fees, and benefit concerts—most recently led by chairman Felix Peikli. The foundation now focuses primarily on projects in Bolivia and South Africa.

To generate interest in the aid project, a young outstanding musician has been selected each year from the very beginning to serve as the project's ambassador. Some have contributed by performing at concerts during the Valdres Summer Symphony, while others have participated in concerts in countries such as Jordan and South Africa. During the Jazz Gala 2025, Marcela Randem was announced the new ambassador for Playing for a Future.

About Marcela Randem

The year after Marcela Randem finished high school, she won Statkraft's Young Star scholarship (2012) and participated in various concerts, including performances with prominent Norwegian musicians such as pianist Wolfgang Plagge and violinist Stig Nilsson at the Hardanger Music Festival, and as a soloist at the Kavli Prize ceremony with Oslo Camerata and Stephan Barratt-Due at the Oslo Concert Hall. Randem was also a soloist in Poulenc's Gloria with the Oslo Symphony Orchestra at Grønland Church.

In 2018, she completed a master’s degree at the Norwegian National Opera Academy in Oslo, and that same year she was a student intern at the Vilnius Academy of Music, where she studied with Irena Milkeviciute. In 2019, she received a grant from FFUK (Fund for Performing Artists) and moved to Berlin to study with Abbie Furmansky.

In the summer of 2021, she made her role debut as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Vienna Opera Festival.

List of Ambassadors:

2009 – Alexander Rybak, violin and more
2010 – Felix Peikli, clarinet
2011 – Guro Kleven Hagen, violin
2012 – Catharina Chen, violin
2013 – Sandra Lied Haga, cello
2014 – Eivind Holtsmark Ringstad, viola
2015 – Sonoko Miriam Welde, violin
2016 – Nikolai Clavïer, viola
2017 – Ludvig Gudim and Nhi Do Phuong, violin
2019 – Carl Nilsen, conductor
2025 – Marcela Randem, vocalist