• Classical
  Effektiv und
  gefühlvoll
  
  Bruun:...
  Petter Sundkvist
  Dacapo
  It is certainly the most original work of an otherwise compact more than enough interest to make an example of the...

Frode Andersen - Accordion
Frode Andersen trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. His great interest in contemporary music is reflected both in his concert activities and his work as an initiator, administrator, writer and organizer for a number of events and institutions on the Danish contemporary music scene.


Esbjerg Ensemble
Since it was founded in 1967, Esbjerg Ensemble has won a prominent position in Danish and European musical life with its unique configuration: piano, wind quintet, string quintet and percussion. The ensemble explores an unusually wide repertoire, from the Baroque to the most contemporary music. Classicists like Mozart, Schubert and Brahms stand side by side with composers like Glinka, Berwald and Spohr. Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Hindemith, Ives, Britten and of course Carl Nielsen are staples of the ensemble’s repertoire, as are famous composers from the period up to the end of our own century like Ligeti, Berio, Henze, Lutoslawski, Rihm, Cage and Glass. The Ensemble’s inventive programming and musical versatility make for enthusiastic audiences, not only for its concert series, which are based at the Performing Arts Centre of Esbjerg, but also in many radio and CD recordings and - not least - in its touring activities. Esbjerg Ensemble plays an important role in contemporary cultural life thanks to its pio-neering work for new music. This is evidenced by the works they commission and the first per-formances they give, as well as the annual composers’ workshop which gives young composers a chance to work at close quarters with the musicians and experience the intensity of the rehearsal room and the concert stage. The cultural role of the ensemble is to encourage and pass on contemporary music that is constantly developing. That they do so with great success can be seen from the large number of works written for Esbjerg Ensemble and at the workshop that is held every spring, where composers are invited to present their music and directly see and hear exciting chamber music in rehearsals and concerts.


Helene Gjerris - Mezzo-Soprano
You can master it all - Carmen, Baroque music and the latest avant-garde. At least if you are Helene Gjerris. Her all-embracing talent has captivated audiences and composers alike since the middle of the 1990s. Even before she made her official debut in 1997 she had emerged as an unusual figure in Danish musical life. Several new works have been written especially for her. Helene Gjerris trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, but some of her professional secret may also come from several years of study at a London school for carnival and street performers. In contemporary music in particular, her charismatic performance comes into its own. At the beginning of her career Helene Gjerris sang Renaissance music in the vocal ensemble Ars Nova, and at the age of 24 she was a co-founder of the ensemble for contemporary music Figura. On the European Baroque stages she has appeared in Handel's opera Teseo and Cavalli's opera Giasone. Among standard roles she has sung Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro and the title roles in Rossini's La cenerentola and Bizet's Carmen, on among other stages the Danish Royal Theatre. She also sings in oratorios by Bach, Handel and Mozart and appears with Marlene Dietrich's repertoire in the vocal group Kopenhagen Kabarett. On CDs from Dacapo you can hear Helene Gjerris in Per Nørgård's opera Nuit des hommes and the cantata The Will-o'-the Wisps Have Gone to Town, in Rued Langgaard's Late Romantic mystery play Antichrist and in contemporary music by Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen. She has received many awards including the Aksel Schiøtz Prize, the honorary prize of the Danish Composers' Society and the Reumert Prize. Helene Gjerris is recently appointed professor at The Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Southern Denmark.


Petter Sundkvist - Conductor
Since his studies in Stockholm with Jorma Panula, Petter Sundkvist has established himself as one of Sweden’s most sought-after conductors. He currently serves as Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Norrbotten Chamber Orchestra, the contemporary music ensemble NNEO and the Pitea Chamber Opera. Until 2006 he was Principal Conductor of Musica Vitae with which he has toured Spain and the United States. He has held the First Guest Conductor post with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra since 2002, and up until 2004 he held a similar position with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, where he collaborated on many recordings. Petter Sundkvist has conducted more than 70 debut performances of contemporary music and more than 20 opera productions in a variety of venues. Naxos has awarded him a leading position in a comprehensive recording series devoted to Swedish music. A regular guest with all the major Swedish orchestras, he has also appeared with major symphony orchestras throughout Scandinavia, Germany, Russia, Iceland, Italy, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Great Britain. Through his internationally acclaimed recordings of music by Joseph Martin Kraus, Petter Sundkvist has established himself as an expert in the performance of eighteenth and early nineteenth century music.

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  Frode Andersen
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  Helene Gjerris
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  Esbjerg...
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  Petter...