Aura for string orchestra is given a performance on the 9th of September in Mikkeli in Finland. Ari Raisilainen conducting the Mikkeli City Orchestra.

For the time being am I working on several compositions. The main work is my long awaited viola concerto “Caminante”. Then a violine concerto “Melancholia” for Jan Stigmer. And I have some really interesting projects in the pipe line. So stay tuned!

The piece is written after an initiative from Camilla Hoitenga (flute), Jenny Q Chai (grand piano) and Hartmut Schulz (the festival leader of the Equinox Festival). The subtitle is “und Niccolò Castigilioni ist auch dabei”. It is a relatively short fragmented composistion with a durata of eight minutes. The piece is premiered on the 29th of April. Castiglioni has written a piece for to grand pianos called “Omagio a Edvard Grieg”, and elements from his composition are used in my composition. I´ve also used elements from Grieg’s Lyric Pieces.

It is one step forward; the Pretty Mellow home pages with text and audio examples are now published! Dive into the art pop universe of Malin Kjelsrud (lyrics and vocals) and Dagfinn Koch (music, production and vocals), both who has written the material with some contributions from the great singer songwriter Tirill Mohn.

On the 6th of February “Fanfarer for Redningsselskapet” (“Fanfare for the Norwegian Society of Sea Rescue”) is performed in Wisconsin by the Civic Symphony of Green Bay under the direction of Seong-Kyung Graham, USA. The Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue commissioned the Fanfare in the occasion of the baptizing of the rescue vessel Erik Bye. Erik Bye (1926-2004) was a really important figure in television, journalism and singer. Very famous in Norway. The fanfare is inspired by middle age music, and written for a broader audience. The concert includes the orchestrated version of Grieg´s Norwegian Dances, and Sibelius 2. Symphony.

On the 29th of April  ”Hommage a Edvard Hagerup Grieg” is going to be given its first performance during the Equinox Festival in Cologne Germany. Flute Camilla Hoitenga piano Jenny Q Chai.

I´m working on a book project called Gradus ad Parnassum (the steps to the the mountain Parnass). It is inspired by Johann Joseph Fux (1660-1741) i who wrote his book in counterpoint Gradus ad Parnassum in 1725. The book was translated from latin to german by the Bach pupil Lorenz Christof Mizler (1711-1778) in 1742. The site is in norwegian. http://gradus-ad-parnassum.no/ The painter Paul Klee painted his Gradus ad Parnassum in 1932, perhaps inspired by his visit to the mountain Parnass some years before he painted it; Apollos home. My book (hopefully someone wants to publish it) is about modern composition technics since Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951) but true to the history of musical composition through the centuries that preseeded  the contemporary music.

Here the recording of By ved hav, which was given its first performance by the Kristiansund Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bjørn Sagstad on October the 31. in Kristiansund/Norway.

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I’ve now on the 14. October been here in Basel for almost two weeks, and have had acces to one of the most prominent archives for contemporary music in the world: The Paul Sacher Fundation. And I was granted permission to see selected items from their collection. Not only on micro film but allso in real life:

Sketches by  Elliott Carter (1908-) to his Clarinet Concerto, and the famous Sinfonia by Lucianio Berio (1925-2003). EDIT:  I spent a whole week studiying the work of Morton Feldman; (1926-87) a really interesting composer.

To be here in Basel at the institute is for a composer really important. To see what your colleges have written. For me the sketches are of great interest.

For those of you who would like to visit the Paul Sacher Fundation I´ll recomend  Hotel Birsighof nerby.

(The photo is taken with the kind permission from the Paul Sacher Fundation)

I´ve got a scholarship from “A.C. Houens og C. Mohrs legacy for artists” to study at the Paul Sacher Fundation in  Basel/Switzerland from the 4th until the 17th of October. I’m going to study Luciano Berio and Morton Feldman. The idea is to write a book on musical composistion. A new Gradus ad Parnassum.