2007 – 2009 in short

8. February 2009: I have been invited to Bergen for the performing of Aura on the 8th of February.

19. December 2008: Collegium Musicum and Geir Atle Stangenes (leader) in Bergen/Norway is going to perform Aura for 16 solo strings on the 8. February. Link to the program.

17. December 2008: I am finishing a concerto for Frans Helmersson (cello) and Bodø sinfonietta Oleg Snetkov conducting. The “Le Tombeau de Schnittke” is going to be performed on 15. Februar in St.Petersburg, on 17. Februar in Moscow, and at 18. February in Klin.

11. October 2008: On October 10. three scenes from the opera “Adéle” was given a performance as a part of Music Theatre in Bodø’s (Musikkteater i Bodø) opera competition. Bodø Sinfonietta conducted by Oleg Snetkov. Marianne E Andersen (Kerstin) Axel, Ludvik Lindstrøm (Knut) and Andreas Lundmark (Axel). Anitra Tumsevica with the opera project “Red” won the competition, and was given the possibility to develop here piece; congratulations!

26. September 2008: Forsvarets Musikkorps Vestlandet (The Norwegian Army Band) with Trond Korsgård conducting, is going to perform Beyond Bayat during the Brass Wind Festival 26. to 28. of September on the first day of the festival. Translucence for Brass Band, is also going to be performed during the festival on the 27. of September by Tertnes Brass conducted by Bjørn Breistein.

14. September 2008: On the 16. of September Bodø Sinfonietta and the conductor Oleg Snetkov have the first rehersal on opera competition where my Adele is one of to pieces competing. Ketil J. Zahl has written the libretto. The stage premiere is in Bodø on Thursday 9. of October. They are going to performe four scenes.

We congratulate Finn Coren with the release of his double album “I draumar fær du” with poems by Olav H. Hauge on the 22. of September. Dagfinn has done all the string quartett orchestrations and one arrangement for string quartett.

15. August 2008: Forsvarets Musikkorps Vestlandet (The Norwegian Army Band) with Trond Korsgård conducting, is going to perform Beyond Bayat during the Brass Wind Festival 26. to 28. of September. Also confer the posting from the 26. of June.

11. August 2008: On the 21. August Koch is going to preform some “Urban Portraits” for piano solo at Malin Kjelsrud & Kristin Rasmussens vernissage in Stadtbibliothek Schwerin.

7. July 2008: I wrote an article in Ballade commenting an essay by Eivind Buene in Minerva. Buene’s essay is about writing opera, and called “Ikke før den tykke damen synger”/”Not before the fat lady sings”. Koch’s artikle “Og komponisten ble ikke fet – en kort sytete kommentar”/”And the composer didn’t get fat – a short whining comment” where he writes that everybody but the composer and librettist gets well paid. The article is in norwegian.

26. June 2008: Translucence for Brass Band, is going to be performed during the BrassWind Festival in Bergen/Norway on the 27. of September by Tertnes Brass conducted by Bjørn Breistein. The piece had its first performance with Oslofjord Brass conducted by Michael Antrobus at the BrassWind Festival in 2006. The composition is dedicated to my collegue and friend, the finnish composer Jukka Koskinen. We studied in Berlin in the nineties. If you would like to see the score, send an email.

30. May 2008: I am now working on the viola concerto which will be a really lyric piece. And some surprises are coming up.

16. May 2008:  Next week on the 21. and 22. Michala Petri is coming to Oslo to record her recorder solo parts on the up coming record “The Crown of Creation” with Lucifer Was, in which I have made all the string arrangements and recorder and solo violin parts. Jan Stigmer will come to Oslo in June to record his parts. The string arrangements was performed by the Kristiansand Chamber Orchestra, and conducted by me.

30. April 2008: I wrote an article in Ballade commenting the discussion between the composer Martin Romberg and music critic Magnus Andersson about the role the modern classical music has in society since Schönberg. The title is: The dream to be liked, or composition as a strategy to survive in an existential way. The article is in norwegian.

24. April 2008: Finnischer Tango to a poem by Hans Magnus Enzensberger was giving its first performance by the soprano Valentina Kozhanova and the pianist Irina Koslesnikova at the opening of Malin Kjelsruds (paintings) and Kristin Rasmussens (ceramic objects) exhibition in the hunting castle Gelbendsande in Germany (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). The composition is dedicated to Dieterich Cassube, a friend, who organized the exhibition. Pictures from the opening of the exhibition is published at Malin Kjelsruds website.

14. April 2008: I wrote an article in Ballade in occasion of the opening of the new opera-house in Oslo. Due to “technical problems” the opening event Gisle Kverndokks opera “Around the World in Eighty Days” was postponed to New Year’s Eve, and the Norwegian Opera and Ballet decided to do an opera cavalcade instead. I wrote that when we look back the scandal will be helpful for the new artistic team at the opera house. The norwegian population will have a feeling that opera is for everybody. The new team will therefore have freedom to do experimental music theatre and ballet, hidden behind the scandalous opening. The article is in norwegian.

1. March 2008: A new scene from the upcoming opera Adèle was tried out at a workshop with Marianne Andersen (mezzo-soprano), Per Andreas Tønder (barytone), Bjarne Sakshaug (repetitor), Bodø Sinfonietta and Oleg Snetkov (conducting). At the 9 th of October three scenes will be given a public performance in Bodø.

31. Desember 2007: Me and my librettist, Ketil J. Zahl is one of the three (of initially 19 projects) which were selected to develop a music theatre piece for Musikkteater i Bodø. Our contribution is called “Adele” and is built on August Strindbergs “play with fire”. The next stage is to have two workshops and in october next year it is going to be a stage performance of some of the scenes. And one of the three will get the commission. On the 4th. of December 2007 there were a workshop at the State Opera with: Marianne E. Andersen (mezzosoprano), Per Andreas Tønder (barytone), Michael McCarthy (Music Theatre Wales), Bjarne Sakshaug (pianist) and Sissel Arnhaug (Musikkteater i Bodø). Next workshop will take place in the end of March 2008 in Bodø in northern Norway.