About

About

For more than twenty years, Ingrid has been writing, recording and performing music across genres ranging from folk and acoustic music to blues, rock and metal. At the heart of her work is a fascination with melody, vocal harmony and storytelling – and with music as something that can move beyond the stage and become part of people's own lives.

She is a co-founder, composer, lyricist and vocalist in Songleikr, the Nordic folk ensemble established with Maria Franz. Following the release of Godtfolk in 2015 and Fuglefolk in 2026, Songleikr has developed a large international audience and performs across Europe and the United States. The project brings together Nordic song traditions, original compositions, layered vocals and acoustic folk instrumentation.

Alongside Songleikr, Ingrid continues to develop her work as an independent composer and artist. Her solo project PIINA explores the meeting point between Nordic folk traditions and contemporary musical expression. She is currently collaborating with Icelandic indie-folk ensemble Árstíðir as a composer and vocalist, while also contributing vocals and arrangements to the forthcoming release by Norwegian black metal band Whoredom Rife Emissary. Her current work also includes composition for film and television in Norway and the United States.

Her musical roots are considerably broader. She began performing as a teenager and later became vocalist and composer in blues-rock band 20 Bones, releasing two albums, followed by the heavy metal project Orpheus. Over the years she has developed projects including Ingrid Synger Griseviser and Who's the Mama & the Tender Three, appeared on Norwegian television through X Factor and Det Store Korslaget (TV2), and collaborated or performed with artists including Heilung, Raindogs and Geoff Berner. Her work has taken her from clubs and international festival stages to Den Kulturelle Skolesekken and European cultural collaborations, most recently the Norwegian-Romanian Creative Europe project Echoes in 2025.

A recurring thread through Ingrid's work is an interest in living tradition. Rather than treating folk culture as something fixed in the past, she is interested in what happens when traditions continue to be used, changed and created by people living today. She writes songs intended not only to be performed and recorded, but to be remembered, shared and sung by others.

This relationship between history and contemporary life also runs through her work outside music.

In 2009, Ingrid founded Trondheim Vikinglag, which grew into one of Norway's largest active historical reenactment communities. She later founded Hands on History, developing festivals, conferences and international EU collaborations connecting experimental archaeology, historical interpretation and research. From 2012 to 2017 she worked at Sverresborg Trøndelag Folk Museum, including as head of interpretation, with responsibility for audience development, storytelling and cultural history.

She subsequently moved into international documentary film. As a producer and managing director at UpNorth Film, Ingrid developed and produced documentaries for cinema, television and international festivals, with productions distributed across nearly 30 territories. Her filmography includes iHuman, Praying for Armageddon, Oh, It Hertz!, Phantoms of Sierra Madre and Portrait of a Confused Father.

From 2023 to 2026 she served as Managing Director of Turnéteatret i Trøndelag, one of Norway's regional theatres, while continuing to work internationally as an expert for Creative Europe, evaluating European cultural and media projects.

Ingrid holds a Master's degree from NTNU's Department of Art and Media Studies.