Jarl Eivind Aspen has worked primarily as a professional oboe player before pursuing a career as a conductor. With only oboe in hand, he had a powerful ability to inspire and influence his colleagues to follow his ideas. In the end, the path to the podium was quite clear. Aspen completed a masters in conducting at the Norwegian Academy of music with Prof. Ole Kristian Ruud. In June 2022 he made his debut with the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Since 2023 he has been a regular student at Jorma Panula’s masterclasses. Aspen’s repertoire focuses on Nordic and English composers, and he takes a particular interest in uncovering and adopting the performing styles surrounding the composers. His fondness of English composers is especially clear in his performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ 5th Symphony, an interpretation where Aspen brings together stylistic traits found on the first recordings of the work, in the 1940-50.