Eclissi divina – orchestral piece

An open invitation for orchestras to perform my piece 💌

Eclissi divina is a tone poem paralleling Dante’s Paradiso with natural phenomena occurring at sea during a solar eclipse.

From the programme text:

[…] The twilight leads the fish to believe that it is night, and they start swimming upward in a fast motion. The eye of heaven is about to close, the receding light revealing an uncanny beauty. […]

Instrumentation: 2[picc] 2[eh] 2[cbcl] 2 – 2 2 0 0 – Timp 2-Prc – Cel[pf] Harp – str. (I will reorchestrate if needed).
Durata ≈ 9’30

Intreagued? Reach out and I will send you a kit with the score, a MIDI realization etc. I would love to hear my piece performed live and I am curious to learn how the musicians feel when playing it as well as what the audience experiences!

🌻

Black Sun by Solveig Sørbø

Premiering Heroin Chic Opera in Norway

On the 22nd February my opera “Heroin Chic” will have its Norwegian premiere at Parkteatret in Oslo. We still need more funding, so if you are able to chip in in the name of indie opera please visit my crowdfunding campaign. For sponsors, I have several creative rewards also – just ask 💖 And in any case, please come! It will be a night to remember! 90 minutes of maximalistic, uncanny, emotional music, fantastic singers and musicians (Ensemble Oslo led by maestro Hans Petter Mæhle) and a party with DJ and dancefloor❤️‍🔥

Read more and buy tickets: Heroin Chic – Norgespremiere + Etterfest

Photo credit: Nina Red, design by Solveig Sørbø

Heroin Chic Opera met it’s first audience in Romania!

It was quite an overwhelming experience to have my most ambitious piece to date premiered by a large team of performers in front of an audience of nearly 500. We got plenty of attention from the TV in both Norway and Romania, a standing ovation, and the critics loved it, calling it “an eclectic soundscape” and praising the work’s “strong emotional impact”, “philosophical charge”, “pregnant sonority” and “intelligent orchestration”. One reviewer felt that the performance “hit the collective psyche”, and another called it a “danse macabre”. In my opera, written with esteemed author Maria Kjos Fonn, the anti-heroine not only sings when dying, but even after. As a modern-day saint she resurrects only to sing at her own funral. I have a sub-page about this huge project which you can find here: Heroin Chic – Opera. We still need to figre out where the staged premiere will be. Please reach out if you would like to have a look at the score and rehearsing material to assess it.

A souvenir from Romania.

Debut with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra

Big news: On the 10th January 2024 The Norwegian Radio Orchestra (Kringkastingsorkestret / KORK) will perform my piece “Love Theme” as part of their “Meloditimen” concert! It will be in their own concert hall Store Studio co-located with The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and it will be broadcast on the radio, and available afterwards.

The Norwegian Radio Orchestra by Julia Marie Naglestad (2021)

This piece was born when I scored “Hans pluss Liv“, and it has undergone quite an evolution since, from being performed on saw and viola by Audun Sandvik and José Martínez Pérez, then having its time signature changed as per the legendary Arve Tellefsen´s suggestion before being recorded by Catharina Chen on her stradivarius (featured in The Strad), and then rearranged for trio to be performed at Interpuls festival by amazing Matias Jentoft, Sverre Barratt-Due and Uno Vesje, to being explored in mysterious and immaculate ways by legendary imporviser Ayumi Tanaka, and sung by me at various concerts. (enough namedropping now)

This time I took time to explore tensions and bold resolutions, but ultimately those ideas were not well suited to the programme concept of “Meloditimen”, where things ought to be listenable (a reason I was invited in the first place, my music being quite melodic), so I worked a bit more to simplify and easen things up a bit before giving the arrangement to one of my favourite orchestrators, Henrik Skram who is best known for his lovely score for the nordic christmas calendar “Snøfall“. He took my ideas and brough life into the orchestra, and also added some of his own fingerprint to it, and then we sat together tweaking things until we found a perfect sweetspot between our creativities (our minds had a baby!).

Well, I am pretty happy with the result, and also the whole process, which included some (mis)guidance and mentoring, some failure and some success. It surely tought me a lot about the vast world of orchestration, and next time I will be equipped to do most or even all by myself. Also, I now have so much spare material to start recycling, which will be great as I have commissions to deliver! It is so much about memetic mutations, and what a thrill it is that behind every hill of exhausting work there might be some piece of musical magic.

Anyway, if you are in Oslo on the 10th January you should run and get one of the last remaining tix (oh actually it is SOLD OUT!) for “Meloditimen”! There will be so much lovely music, all played by the fantastic radio orchestra with their own soloists, conducted by Andres O´Brien, with piano transitions by Ivar Anton Waagaard and hosted by my favourite classical music host Jan Fredrik Heyerdahl.

I am super-excited and I hope that both musicians and the audience will fall in love!

PS If you would like to perform the piece, do reach out, and I will share the score and recording with you!

Mini concert celebrating KOSO

A week ago I participated in the 10 year anniversary concert of the fantastic label KOSO on which I have previously released some music as PYSJ. The label has a wonderful rooster of female artists, and I shared the stage with three of them including label founder and prolific artist Pieces of Juno. Another label sister, the talented Ane Bjerkan, made a recoring of the concerts, and below you can watch mine! I performed my songs “I know the lost ones”, “Love Theme”, “Gi meg solen” and “Wannabe”, and the ambience in the room was truly magical. My performance isn’t perfect, but things are getting better, and I am already yearning back to the stage! Also it feels good that I can confidently perform solo, but of course my beloved musicians expand my universe so much, so I hope to share some good recordings of us soon. Anyway, have a listen to this performace, and let me know what you think!

Ultimalytter

Ultimas nye festivalsjef Heloisa Amaral er opptatt av hvordan ulike lyttere møter musikken, og festivalen har derfor samlet en gruppe mennesker som skal dele av sine lytteopplevelser under årets festival. Jeg har fått i oppdrag å fasilitere samtalene med gruppen, og de vil være åpne for publikum som del av festivalprogrammet. Noen høydepunkter fra samtalene med disse spennende lytterprofilene blir tilgjengelige i etterkant som del av Ultimas podkast. Men altså, skal du på festival, ta turen til Sentralen og hør samtalene med Ultimalytterne! 18.-22. september på Sentralen!

Les mer her

Festival in Slovakia

I had a great time performing on the main stage in Slovakia’s biggest folklore festival Országos Népművészeti Fesztivál with my band Naturhistorisk💚

(We also played a couple more gigs and tasted local wine and Sacher cake.)

Love Theme – new video

It was such a thrill to listen to Matias Jentoft (violin), Uno Vesje (harp) and Sverre Barratt-Due perform the newest arrangement of “Love Theme” which I created for Oslo’s cool minimalism festival Interpuls. I was fortunate enough that it was filmed and recorded. Excellent musicianship, and I really love this combination of instruments! 🐳 💕

Matias Jentoft, Uno Vesje and Sverre Barratt-Due perform “Love Theme” by Solveig Sørbø during Interpuls 2023.

Mestermøter i Nasjonalmuseet

Jeg fikk ikke skrevet om dette før, for det har vært så travelt i det siste. Men det var virkelig en stor opplevelse å få musikk fremført under Mestermøter. Nydelig rom fylt av Dextra Musicas instrumenter i stemningsfulle Nasjonalmuseet, og et varmt og takknemlig publikum, flott introduksjon ved FRAM konsertserie, og ikke minst fabelaktige musikere Andreas Morgan Grimstad, Elias Grimstad, Benjamin Lund Tomter og Petter Richter 🐳💕

Foto: Dextra Musica
Foto: FRAM konsertserie

Interpuls festival

I morgen og lørdag skjer Interpuls festival i Kulturkirken Jakob. Arrangørene har skjønt det. Det blir moderne klassisk- og grenselandmusikk, ikke av den tanngnissende keiserens nye musikk-typen, men deilig, substansiell, og kroppslig engasjerende, deriblant moderne klassikere av Steve Reich og Philip Glass pluss noen norske komponister hvorav noen har urfremføringer. Arrangørene har virkelig skjønt det. Korte konserter- pulser – på 20min og popcorn, alkohol og festivalmat i de mange pausene – interpulsene. Musikken, sjeleføden, er i sentrum, men alle sanser og behovet for pusterom, skravlerom og pirring av smaksløkene settes ikke til side. Ting skjer i “rommet mellom slagene”, som de sier. Og der er kanskje du, midt i stemninga, midt i verden.

Jeg får en ny versjon av “Love Theme” fremført lørdagen, av helt fantastiske musikere – Uno Alexander Vesje på harpe, Matias Jentoft på fiolin, og Sverre Barratt-Due på cello, og samme kveld får man høre Fredrik Høyer, Anna Berg og mange fler. Jeg gleder meg virkelig til hele denne musikerdrevne festivalen. Hashtag publikumsutvikling, hashtag neoklassisk musikk, hashtag musisering, hashtag det er her det skjer. Varm takk til Daniel Lyngstad for invitasjonen! ❤

Les om festivalen og kjøp billetter

To nye ting!

1. Andreas Ihlebæk som, i følge musikkelskende og kvasspennede Ola Nordal i Ballade, er Norges aller beste på neoklassisk musikk, liker mitt “Love Theme” (feat. Catharina Chen ) så godt at han har tatt det med i sin kuraterte TIDAL-liste ❤ Hør gjerne spillelista med hans håndplukkede stykker sjelearbeid! Ihlebæk er en magisk musiker, og like magiske Annasara er også representert med skjønne biter åndelig føde. Føler vi er fra samme planet.

Lytt til Andreas Ihlebæks liste

2. Jeg har det visst i meg, det å kunne snakke 12 minutter om meg selv og min prosess! Veldig glad for invitasjonen til å gjeste den svært poetiske og kunstneriske podcasten til forfatter/poet Nama Jafari (som også er blogger og sjefsredaktør for Sepanj); Artnaal. Jeg er er som vanlig kun delvis enig i noe av det jeg selv sier (presisjon: aktivistisk kunst er dødsviktig og i mange tilfeller med rette altoverskyggende, men det er problematisk om det i fredstid blir umulig å dømme ting på estetisk grunnlag… Jeg snakker vel egentlig om min personlige tilnærming på dette punktet og i resten av podden). Er forøvrig imponert over hvor mange ganger det er mulig å si “jeg” i løpet av kort tid. Men så var det jo dette som var oppgaven, og jeg syns det er en fin episode som fantastiske Jafari har gitt en nydelig tekstlig og grafisk innpakning. Teksten hans leses i episodebeskrivelsen. Håper mange vil lese og lytte og finne glede i dette.

Lytt til podcasten
Hør episoden “Kvinnen er hjemlandet”

Disse to nyhetene smalt jeg altså, siden de kom rett etter hverandre, sammen med et bilde fra min speisa fest (øverst). Kollasjen bak er av Nama Jafari, modifisert av meg, og det ser ut til at jeg holder Andreas Ihlebæks TIDAL-bilde, jo!

God helg!

Intervju i Jazznytt

De fantastiske musikkskribentene Audun Vinger og Filip Roshauw skriver ukentlig jazzblogg i Jazznytt, og denne uka intervjuet Audun meg, og mitt virke fikk en virkelig fin omtale. Det er jeg utrolig glad for! jeg tenker høyt om musikk, og det lenkes til musikken jeg gir ut 1. november, med mesterpianist Ayumi Tanaka.

Les ukas NTT

Love Theme featuring Catharina Chen

My “Love Theme” in a chamber ensemble version is finally out! You can read about it in The Strad and Catharina also visited the radio (NRK) to talk about it and other things.

The music is performed by Catharina Chen (violin), Audun Sandvik (cello), Petter Richter (guitar) and an anonymous pianist. It was recorded, mixed and mastered by Åse Ava Lange Fredheim, and artwork is by Saloni Sinha. I originally composed «Love Theme» for a film, but made a new chamber arrangement encouraged by Arve Tellefsen who had a few suggestions. Hope you all like it!🐳💕

Me and Catharina in The Strad
Animated artwork video
Listen to Catharina on the radio (in 🇳🇴)
Read the interview in The Strad
Listen to Love Theme

I’m on TV

It was a huge kick to have my music performed in the great Fartein Valen hall in Stavanger! NRK Rogaland followed me for half a day to collect two minutes of glimpses from the day of the concert. You can watch the television report here.

We didn’t manage to fill all 1500 seats, but the audience that came were wonderful, and I had them sing – In the aria Gi meg solen from Heroin Chic Elise cannot say the last word, so the audience does. After this song the musicians performed Elises klage and the huge organ produced incredible deep and loud tones. The concert was recorded, so I might share some excerpts later.

Julie Hasfjord (soprano), Ashley Tong (violin), Elena Cotrone (violin), Jonathan Siahaan (piano), Xiiaoti Guo (viola), Sebastian Kolin (cello) and Ådne Sæverud (organ) perform “Gi meg solen” and “Elises klage” from Heroin Chic by Solveig Sørbø and Maria Kjos Fonn. Photo by Foppe Schut.

Concert in Stavanger Concert Hall

On August 4th I have something big coming up! I will have a new work premiered in Stavanger Concert Hall! Soprano Julie Hasfjord will perform the aria “Elises klage” (“Elise’s Lament”) as well as “Gi meg solen” / “Voggesang ved soloppgang” (“Give me the Sun” / Lullaby at Dawn) together with some brilliant musicians: Ashley Tong (violin), Sebastian Kolin (cello) and Jonathan Siahaan (piano) of the award-winning Heathcliff Trio will be joined by Elena K. Cotrone (violin), Xiaoti Guo (viola) and Ådne Sæverud (organ). The performance is part of a free concert featuring works by 8 composers invited by the festival Stavanger K&Mfest (big thanks!). This will be the first time I get to use the gigantic and majestic organ of the Fartein Valen hall (thank you!), and I am extremely excited about it! There is space for an audience of 1500 and I really hope the event can attract this many. With 8 composers and tens of musicians there should most definetely be music that will be music in your ears! Read more about the concert here. Hope to see you!

Forprosjektstøtte og her er en smakebit

Det blir forprosjekt takket være Kulturrådet ! Det betyr at Maria Kjos Fonn og jeg skal leke masse med folk, gråte masse blod, og være frustrerte og inspirerte. Et lite utdrag fra Marias morbide libretto:

Er skåret ned til knokler, ben

Markspist og endelig ren

Ribbet fra svor, flesk og fett

Dø ung, bli et vakkert sjelett

🖤

Photo by Felipe Hueb on Pexels.com

Heroin Chic – Opera

I received grants from Norsk Komponistforening, TONO and NOPA in order to develop the opera “Heroin Chic” 💰💰💰 (thank you!) This means that we are a step closer to realizing this very ambitious project, and I am so thrilled! While this is an important step, we still need to get much more funding so that we can assemble a whole team and get shit done! Here is me sending a message in a bottle 🍾 out on the vast oceans hoping someone will be interested in a collaboration. The message reads:

Dear reader! I am so happy you found my message. Do you work with an ensemble, an opera house or perhaps a festival? Would you like to work with me on making an opera about substance abuse, promiscuity, a cunning death wish, light and darkness? Below is more information and a short video where you hear a little bit of the aria “Voggesang ved soloppgang”. I also have a project description and many work samples that I’ll gladly share with you if you are interested. Do get in touch if you have any questions or just want a peek into our process. Hope to hear from you soon! xx Sincerely, Solveig Sørbø

Introduction: Elise comes from a musical home at Uranienborg in Oslo. Everything is seemingly safe, yet she wants to get away from home. She wants to be weightless, not leave traces. She tries everything. Asceticism, transgressions, too little too much. Finally it’s there. The intoxication that gives her everything she has wanted – namely nothing. To fade out, get numb. Heroin chic is an opera about a social descent without any clear cause. About a disorder that is not soiled by external circumstances. It is enough in itself. The essence.

Format: The opera is threefold and can be performed in parts or in one. The opera needs a small orchestra and singers, and we are open to upscaling and downscaling. One of the parts is a church opera, hence a great fit for church music festivals, but all parts can be adapted to different conditions.

From “Voggesang ved soloppgang” by Maria Kjos Fonn and Solveig Sørbø, performed at Biermannsgården by Susanna Wolff, Sverre Indris Joner, Visobel Black and Mirsaeed Hosseiny Panah.

New job and other news

Guys, I have a new job in NRK P2. As you may know already I am a person with many hats. Music is my passion, but I also enjoy doing various things within culture and academia. I recently rounded up my own radio show / podcast Solveigs Speisa Musikk (it will keep existing in the æther and on a pop-up basis) and found time to look for something new. I came to notice that NRK (Norwegian National Broadcast) needed people to work for them at busy times and my inner voice said something like “I MUST GET THAT JOB” (profound, r ight?). And I went for it. This is how I did it (it wasn’t easy) —-> Only for people who can guess the password (currently it is something famously known as the answer to everything). You can also ask me;) – trying out something new here: My secret (soon to be dionysian) room.

I also had a speisa party! It was so so nice. A band played, two DJs played, there was a round of slavic songs, and some of my dearest friends and others were there. Perhaps I should make more parties like that!

Oh, and I am also collaborating with Bjørn Charles Dreyer and Saleh Mahfoud on some music (mainly my compositions) that we will play at the opening of the house of geology in Oslo. I really really want to get it on tape! They are AMAZING musicians and creators and I love them.

While I’m at it: I will be working on a duet for singers, strings quintet and piano. Part of my opera in the making (ask me for the secret link!). More on that soon!

Me snapping a classic mirror toilet selfie during the party for Solveigs Speisa Musikk

MusicLab Copenhagen vant en pris og jeg besøkte P2!

Fjorårets storveise MusicLab med Danish String Quartet vant prisen “Årets klassiske begivenhed” som deles ut av Danmarks Radio. Prisen gikk til DSQ og RITMO, men jeg føler meg også stolt siden jeg var med å starte selve MusicLab! Her er en sak i Ballade og i tillegg var jeg gjest i Studio 2 hvor jeg snakket om MusicLab, musikkforskning og viktigheten av musikalske opplevelser.

Lytt her