In 2009, Arianna Savall and Petter Udland Johansen founded the group Hirundo Maris, specialising in early music from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, as well as their own compositions and early fusion. Their creative core is Mediterranean and Nordic music, the fruit of their extensive musical partnership. Like a migratory bird, they retrace the routes across seas and music that have linked Scandinavia with the Iberian Peninsula since time immemorial.

Petter Udland Johansen was born in Oslo Norway, where he received his first musical lessons in singing, violin and piano. He studied music at the Music academy of Norway where he got his diploma In 1996. From 1997 until 2000 he studied early music at Schola cantorum Baseliensis with Richard Levitt as his teacher. Later he studied privately with the German Tenor Hans Peter Blochwitz in Basel. Petter is a singer, conductor, composer and instrumentalist with a wide musical specter. He feels at home as well in the classical music as he does it popular and folk music.

Hirundo Maris regularly appears at numerous festivals around Europe, such as the Stanser Musiktage (Switzerland), Cologne’s Fest für Alte Musik, the Jazz in Church Festival, Bucharest (Romania), the Menuhin Festival Gstaad (Switzerland), the Bachwochen Thun (Switzerland), the Styriarte Festival (Austria), All’Improvviso Festival (Poland), the Oslo Kirkemusikk Festivalen, Nordlysfestivalen (Northern Lights Festival) Tromsø (Norway), Festival de Dinan (Brittany), Seduced by Harps (Belgium), the Sentmenat International Harp Festival (Catalonia), the Arp Sanati Dergi Festival in Istanbul (Turkey), Festival de Fontfroide and Philippe Maillard Productions (Paris), among others.

Hirundo Maris recorded their first disc Chants du Sud et du Nord under Manfred Eicher’s prestigious ECM record label. Personally produced by M. Eicher, the record won international critical acclaim. Together with Arianna Savall he is musical director of Bardonecchia harp Festival in Italy since 2016.