Music Summer Courses 2024
Sunday 25 August 2024
Before the semester starts in a week, I thought I would be time for an update with some summer courses for pianists that three of my students attended this year.
When I was a student myself, summer was a very inspiring time to practice, listen and meet other pianists at a different pace and under different conditions than during the semester. So I’m of course happy when my students do the same!
The first course is the Miami International Piano Festival Academy (MIPFA) which Julia Thuvesen attended. It was not held in Miami as you might think, but in Dobbiaco/Toblach which is incredibly beautifully situated in the Italian Dolomites. There were many teachers during intensive course days and Julia was taught by Giselle Brodsky, Josu De Solaun, Dmitri Ablogin, Stephen Beus, and Steven Osborne. Julia was very satisfied with the course where she also got to participate in student concerts, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician with music by, among others. C. Debussy and R. Schumann.
Another course was the Savonlinna Music Academy in Finland, which Octavian Leyva Dragomir attended together with his duo partner soprano Anna Baek Christensen. Their teacher was Martin Katz who held a masterclass on the theme of Opera and Lied. A nice detail is that the course’s artistic director is Ralf Góthoni, who I had the pleasure of performing for a few times both in Sweden and Finland, a fantastic pianist and inspirer!
The third course was Nordic Song Festival 2024, a course focused on Nordic romances in which Elin Dahlberg participated.
Teachers were Gitta-Maria Sjöberg, soprano, Mats Jansson, piano Kåre Bjørkøy, tenor Matti Borg, composer and vocal coach Hanne Tofte Jespersen, composer and the festival’s composer in residence, Inger Dam-Jensen, soprano Robert Pukitis, director and improvisation Mette Borg, director and dramaturg Christine Bjørkøe, piano.
Elin’s repertoire included both romances and solo works by Erland von Koch, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Gunnar de Frumerie, Gösta Nystroem, Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen.
This is what Elin herself says about the course: “One of the major advantages of the course is that it is jam-packed with lessons with so many different teachers, which gives several different perspectives on the repertoire. Something I really take with me is the text analyzes and how incredibly important they are! It didn’t really become music until we had thoroughly processed the lyrics and landed in our interpretation of the lyrics. Something that was very luxurious was that we had morning warm-up almost every day, partly with mindfulness and exercises for our tensed musician’s bodies. I felt a big positive difference after the warm-up, both in my body and in my own nervousness before masterclasses and concerts and is something I will continue with this autumn. Something that I would have liked would have been more rehearsal time with singers/own practice time, which was very limited with a packed schedule. At the same time, we really got the most out of the course’s teachers, which is most worthwhile even if we were all super tired at the end of the course. Now I have been able to take part in so many beautiful things from our Nordic romances and I am very excited to discover other Nordic0 songs!”
Before the semester starts in a week, I thought I would be time for an update with some summer courses for pianists that three of my students attended this year.
When I was a student myself, summer was a very inspiring time to practice, listen and meet other pianists at a different pace and under different conditions than during the semester. So I’m of course happy when my students do the same!
The first course is the Miami International Piano Festival Academy (MIPFA) which Julia Thuvesen attended. It was not held in Miami as you might think, but in Dobbiaco/Toblach which is incredibly beautifully situated in the Italian Dolomites. There were many teachers during intensive course days and Julia was taught by Giselle Brodsky, Josu De Solaun, Dmitri Ablogin, Stephen Beus, and Steven Osborne. Julia was very satisfied with the course where she also got to participate in student concerts, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician with music by, among others. C. Debussy and R. Schumann.
Another course was the Savonlinna Music Academy in Finland, which Octavian Leyva Dragomir attended together with his duo partner soprano Anna Baek Christensen. Their teacher was Martin Katz who held a masterclass on the theme of Opera and Lied. A nice detail is that the course’s artistic director is Ralf Góthoni, who I had the pleasure of performing for a few times both in Sweden and Finland, a fantastic pianist and inspirer!
The third course was Nordic Song Festival 2024, a course focused on Nordic romances in which Elin Dahlberg participated.
Teachers were Gitta-Maria Sjöberg, soprano, Mats Jansson, piano Kåre Bjørkøy, tenor Matti Borg, composer and vocal coach Hanne Tofte Jespersen, composer and the festival’s composer in residence, Inger Dam-Jensen, soprano Robert Pukitis, director and improvisation Mette Borg, director and dramaturg Christine Bjørkøe, piano.
Elin’s repertoire included both romances and solo works by Erland von Koch, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Gunnar de Frumerie, Gösta Nystroem, Jean Sibelius and Carl Nielsen.
This is what Elin herself says about the course: “One of the major advantages of the course is that it is jam-packed with lessons with so many different teachers, which gives several different perspectives on the repertoire. Something I really take with me is the text analyzes and how incredibly important they are! It didn’t really become music until we had thoroughly processed the lyrics and landed in our interpretation of the lyrics. Something that was very luxurious was that we had morning warm-up almost every day, partly with mindfulness and exercises for our tensed musician’s bodies. I felt a big positive difference after the warm-up, both in my body and in my own nervousness before masterclasses and concerts and is something I will continue with this autumn. Something that I would have liked would have been more rehearsal time with singers/own practice time, which was very limited with a packed schedule. At the same time, we really got the most out of the course’s teachers, which is most worthwhile even if we were all super tired at the end of the course. Now I have been able to take part in so many beautiful things from our Nordic romances and I am very excited to discover other Nordic0 songs!”
Söndag 25 augusti 2024
Sommarkurser 2024
Innan terminen drar igång om en vecka så tänkte jag göra en uppdatering med några sommarkurser för pianister som tre av mina studenter deltagit vid.
När jag själv var student var sommaren en väldigt inspirerande tid för att i ett annat tempo och under andra förutsättningar än under terminen öva, lyssna och träffa andra pianister.
Den första kursen är Miami International Piano Festival Academy (MIPFA) som Julia Thuvesen deltog i. Den gick inte av stapeln i Miami som man kanske kan tro utan i Dobbiaco/Toblach som ligger otroligt vackert till i Italienska Dolomiterna. Det var väldigt många lärare under intensiva kursdagar och Julia fick undervisning av Giselle Brodsky, Josu De Solaun, Dmitri Ablogin, Stephen Beus, och Steven Osborne. Julia var väldigt nöjd med kursen där hon även fick medverka vid studentkonserter, både som solist och kammarmusiker med musik av bla. C. Debussy och R. Schumann.
En annan kurs var Savonlinna Music Academy i Finland som Octavian Leyva Dragomir var på tillsammans med sin duopartner sopranen Anna Baek Christensen. Deras lärare var Martin Katz som höll i masterclass med tema Opera and Lied. Kul detalj är att kursens konstnärlige ledare är Ralf Góthoni som jag haft glädjen att spela upp för några gånger både i Sverige och Finland, en fantastisk pianist och inspiratör!
Den tredje kursen var Nordic Song Festival 2024, en kurs inriktad motnordiska romanser som Elin Dahlberg deltog i.
Lärare var Gitta-Maria Sjöberg, sopran, Mats Jansson, piano Kåre Bjørkøy, tenor Matti Borg, tonsättare och vokal coach Hanne Tofte Jespersen, kompositör och festivalens composer in residence , Inger Dam-Jensen, sopran Robert Pukitis, regissör och improvisation Mette Borg, regissör och dramaturg Christine Bjørkøe, piano.
Elin hade som repertoar både romanser och soloverk av Erland von Koch, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Gunnar de Frumerie, Gösta Nystroem, Jean Sibelius och Carl Nielsen.
Så här säger Elin själv om kursen: ”En av kursen stora fördelar är att den är proppfylld med lektioner med så många olika lärare vilket ger flera olika perspektiv på repertoaren. Något jag verkligen tar med mig är textanalyserna och hur otroligt viktiga de är! Det blev som inte musik på riktigt förrän att vi verkligen hade bearbetat texterna och landat i vår tolkning av texten. Något som var väldigt lyxigt var att vi hade morgonuppvärmning nästan varje dag, dels med mindfullness och övningar för den spända musikerkroppen. Jag kände en stor positiv skillnad efter uppvärmningen, både i kroppen och i min egen nervositet inför masterclasses och konserter och är absolut något jag kommer fortsätta med i höst. Något som jag hade önskat skulle vara mer reptid med sångare/egen övningstid vilken blev väldigt begränsat med ett proppat schema. Samtidigt, så fick vi verkligen ut mesta möjliga av kursens lärare vilket är mest värt även om vi alla var supertrött vid kursens slut. Nu har jag fått ta del av så mycket fint från våra nordiska romanser och jag är nu väldigt taggad på att upptäcka andra nordiska sånger!”
About University of Music and Opera, Mälardalen University
Om Musik- och Operahögskolan vid Mälardalens universitet
