SPOR 2025
SPOR
What happens when you bring together young people with various disabilities, able-bodied young people, and a symphony orchestra on one stage?
The answer is: collaboration, friendship, personal growth—and a performance that moves audiences and breaks down barriers. SPOR is a performance featuring nearly 100 high school students and the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra on stage. The performance is built around the participants’ stories, unique talents, personalities, and abilities.
SPOR aims to be a unifying platform that promotes mental health, quality of life, and social participation
Participation and Diversity
Through its SPOR productions,Kilden has put participation in the arts and culture on the agenda. These initiatives create opportunities for young people with disabilities and their peers themselves to express themselves on stage through song, music, text, dance, film, and other forms of expression. In collaboration with professional musicians and performing artists , a performance is created that is diverse, genuine, and, not least, unique.
Mastery and Inclusion
Both students and the artistic team are given ample opportunity to grow both artistically and personally. All participants, regardless of their role, are given the chance to learn something new about themselves and about the people they work with. In SPOR, everyone is equally important, and everyone must pull in the same direction for SPOR to become the colorful and moving performance it is meant to be!
Critically acclaimed SPOR productions have been staged in 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2025. The next performance is in March 2028. While each production is entirely unique, they all share the common element of symphonic music by Stig Nordhagen, composed specifically for SPOR, which serves as the musical backbone of the performance.
Over the years, SPOR has received significant attention both in Norway and abroad. In 2021, SPOR contributed a segment to the government’s memorial event for July 22 at Oslo Spektrum and on NRK TV. That same fall, NRK TV aired a two-part documentary series with a behind-the-scenes focus on SPOR. Mette Midling-Jenssen, a special education teacher at Kristiansand Katedralskole Gimle, and Elisabeth Lindland, director and scriptwriter for SPOR, have received the Agder County Culture Award for their work on the SPOR performances.
“Once again, SPOR is the most important art event of the year at Kilden. No one leaves unchanged after experiencing it.”
- Emil Otto Syvertsen, critic for Fædrelandsvennen.