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!
Solveig Sørbø 