Eivind Aadland is one of Norway's most prominent conductors, with a specialty in Scandinavian music. He has been active across Scandinavia, Germany, East Asia, and Australia.

Aadland was born on September 19, 1956, in Bergen, Norway, where he spent the first part of his career. He began as a violinist and served as concertmaster of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra from 1981 to 1989. Aadland was encouraged by star conductor Mariss Jansons to switch to conducting, and Aadland began taking lessons from conductor Jorma Panula. His first conducting post was as the music director of the European Union Chamber Orchestra, which he held from 1987 to 1997; the post spread his name throughout Europe. Aadland took further conducting lessons from violinist/conductor Yehudi Menuhin, and the two sometimes performed and recorded together. He began conducting the Trondheim Symphony in the early 2000s and held the posts of chief conductor there between 2004 and 2010, performing complete cycles of Beethoven's and Mahler's symphonies. During this period, Aadland also often led opera performances at Den Norske Opera in Oslo. In the 2010s, Aadland was a frequent guest conductor with orchestras around Scandinavia and beyond, including the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; he began to appear in East Asia increasingly often and in 2020 began a stint as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. He has often conducted well-known and obscure Scandinavian works, but his repertory is broad.

Aadland has made a number of recordings for Audite, Orfeo, BIS, and other labels. For Audite, he recorded a complete cycle of Grieg's symphonic works with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, an ensemble he has often guest conducted. In 2020, for Orfeo, he and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra backed violinist Baiba Skride in a complete cycle of Mozart's violin concertos. ~ James Manheim, Rovi