Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra has released the video from the world premiere of “Freude” for orchestra, offstage choir and gran cassa. The piece is performed by the orchestra, Edvard Grieg Choir and Bergen Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend.

Freude was commissioned by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, which was set to open its 2025/26 season with Beethoven Ninth Symphony and requested a new work that could, in some way, relate to it. I chose to use the same orchestration as Beethoven (excluding vocal soloists). Whereas he set the entire text of Schiller’s ode to joy human unity, freedom, and brotherhood, I use only the first word: Freude. The piece was written during a time of global unrest and uncertainty, and my Freude is not a cry of celebration, but rather a distant and open question. The brass and winds play a single, ominous chord — the fate-laden opening of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s symphony.

Erlend Apneseth Trio, the BIT20 Ensemble, conductor Bjarni Frímann, and producer Bergur Þórisson have been in the studio recording the full-length work Terra Incognita. The piece combines contemporary music, free improvisation, and folk music, and is a collaboration between Erlend Apneseth and Ørjan Matre. It was premiered at the Ultima Festival in Oslo in 2024. Read more about the work here.

Freude is premiered at the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s season opening concert, conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend. The work marks the beginning of Ørjan Matre’s two-year residency as the orchestra’s composer.

I have chosen to use the same orchestration as Beethoven – but without the vocal soloists. Whereas Beethoven set the entire text of Schiller’s ode to joy, human fellowship, and freedom, I use only the first word: Freude. The piece was written during a time marked by unrest and uncertainty. My Freude is therefore not a cry of jubilation, but a distant and open question. The wind and brass instruments play a single, unsettling chord – the fate-laden opening of Beethoven’s fourth movement.

Ørjan Matre is the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s composer-in-residence from 2025 to 2027. Over the course of two seasons, both the orchestra and its audiences will have ample opportunity to engage with his music. In the 2025/26 season alone, his works will be featured in nine concerts across six different productions.

More information here.

Photo: Sunniva Øiestad

Ørjan Matre is a composer with a clear voice in the present. For us, this two-year collaboration is not only about a sincere desire to present more of his music to the public, but also about a curiosity about what such a “voice in the present” could actually be. (Sigurd Sverdrup Sandmo – Managing Director of Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra)

A live video from Sverre Riise and The Norwegian Broadcasting Orchestra’s premiere of “…I have said this before…” is now available. The piece is based on “… but I must have said this before …” for trombone and ensemble, originally commissioned by Ensemble Ernst in 2010. The orchestral version is significantly expanded, featuring not only an enlarged instrumentation but also new material.

A video for Minnesota Orchestra’s performance of Lyric Pieces, conducted by Thomas Søndergård.

A new Piano Concerto is in the making. Commissioned by Leif Ove Andsnes, the piece will premiere in February 2026 with the Oslo Philharmonic and conductor Thomas Søndergård, followed by performances with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.

The project Our House has been nominated for the 2024 “Work of the Year” award by The Norwegian Society of Composers. A total of 20 works by Norwegian composers have been selected. Here’s a throwback to that unforgettable day in our borettslag:

Terra Incognita will be premiered at Riksscenen in Oslo during the Ultima Festival 2024. The piece is the latest in a series of collaborations between the innovative Hardanger fiddle player Erlend Apneseth and Ørjan Matre. This piece explores the intersection of tradition and innovation. Apneseth’s ensemble, the Erlend Apneseth Trio—comprising Erlend Apneseth, Stephan Meidell, and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde—blends Norwegian folk music, jazz, and electronica.

March 2nd 2024, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Emilia Hoving will perform Lyric Pieces. This pieces was originally scored for orchestra and premiered by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Edvard Gardner in 2019. For the concert in Helsingborg, a completely new version has been made that also includes Christian Ihle Hadland on solo piano in several of the movements.

Photo: Nikolaj Lund

A recording of Six Orphic Amulets has just been released! The pieces is performed by NoXaS Saxophone Quartet and Nordic Voices. The recording also contains music by Jon Øivind Ness and Karen Rehnqvist.

Six Orphic Amulets was commissioned by NoXaS and Nordic Voices, and premiered at Bergen International Festival in June 2018.

(Post in Norwegian)

På platen “Rosa fra Betlehem” synger Sondre Bratland sangen Joli kjem. Sangen er opprinnelig en palestinsk folketone, og Erik Hillestad har skrevet den sterke og viktige teksten. Jeg har laget et firstemmig arrangement som passer for kor på alle nivå. Arrangementet kan lastes gratis ned her (trykk på bildet for pdf):

Partitur og lyd (liveopptak fra Bergen Domkirke, 22.11.23, Bergen Domkor, dirigent: Kjetil Almenning)

JOLI KJEM

Joli kjem når blomar gror
opp frå krigens brende jord.
Joli kjem som mogen frukt
når me jagar hat på flukt.
Joli kjem som tre or frø
når me deler vatn og brød.
Då i fredens kvite natt
høyrer hyrding songen att.

Joli kjem når blomar gror
opp frå krigens brende jord.
Joli kjem som mogen frukt
når me jagar hat på flukt.
Joli gjer ein ørken grøn
når me byter hemn med bøn.
Då når kjærleikstankar kjem
syng dei over Betlehem.

Joli kjem når blomar gror
opp frå krigens brende jord.
Joli kjem som mogen frukt
når me jagar hat på flukt.
Joli kjem som busk frå grus
når me deler land og hus.
Når me tek ein bror i famn
lovsyng englar Jesu namn.

24th of November Lyric Pieces II will be premiered at Edvard Grieg’s home Troldhaugen by Bergen String Quartet and Ellena Hale (piano). The pieceis scored for string quartet, piano, electronics, 15 metronomes, and a gramophone player playing a 78 RPM record. The work is a kind of continuation Lyric Pieces for orchestra (2019). Some of the Lyric Pieces from the orchestral piece have been revisited, but in a completely new setting.

The electronics are based on Edvard Grieg’s recordings from 1903/1906 of some of his Lyric Pieces and field recordings from Torshov in Oslo and Fløen in Bergen.

Kode has released a short documentary from the happening in Fløenbakken in August. The video is produced by Better Call Paul.

Photo: Frode Boris Bakken

The concert performance “Our house” was premiered August 26th in Fløenbakken boliglag. The performance consisted of concerts inside and outside in Ørjan Matre’s neighbourhood, in Ørjan and his neighbours’ flats and in their shared garden. The project became a reflection on community and cooperation, and received a lot of attention in the media.

Musicians:

Martha Berit Belt, piano
Erlend Apneseth, hardanger fiddle
Jostein Stalheim, accordion
Halvor F. Melien, bariton
Knut Christian Jansson, fortepiano
Krohnengen Brass Band
Hellen og Eidsvåg School Band
Fredrik Schjelderup, conductor
Bergen String Quartet (as part of the sound installation “Strykefritt”)
Bergen Domkor (conductor: Kjetil Almenning)

New concert added to calendar: “Our house” – a concert performance

Kode has visited my home. We talked about music, living in a housing co-operative, about trains and running. In August there will be a concert in a proper composer’s home – we will turn Fløenbakken upside down and invite you to the concert performance “Our House”.

Stay tuned!

Photo: Anette Basso

Ørjan Matre is KODE´s (Art Museums of Bergen) 2023 composer in residence.

Each year a new composer is chosen to take on this role. During the year, the resident composer has the opportunity to curate concerts, lectures and content in social media, in addition to composing a brand new work which is performed towards the end of the term.

Each composer has their own twist on how they want to shape their time at Kode. In the past, Wolfgang Plagge and Rebecka Sofia Ahvenniemi have held the role as KODE´s composer in residence.

Matre will present several different projects and concerts throughout the year, and is also developing a project that revolves around his own composer’s home.

Read KODE´s presentation of Ørjan Matre here.

In February, Ragnhild Hemsing (Hardanger fiddle), Marja Mortensson (joik) and Trondheimsolistene premiere the new work “Gaavnedien”. They perform it for the first time in the Grieg Hall in Bergen, and repeat the concert in Trøndelag and at Hemsing’s own festival, Hemsingfestivalen
in Valdres.

“Gaavnedien” (Sami for “We meet”) combines two traditional joiks, “Galkije johke” (running water) and “Gaavalahke” (the one chosen to lead the reindeer herd) with “Huldrelått”, a lyar song from Vang i Valdres.

The digital magazine “Kontekst” spoke to Ørjan Matre about writing music with a brush and 10H pencil, about musician psychology, and about banging your head against the wall until music emerges.

Read full interview (in Norwegian) here.

Bergen Philharmonic has uploaded the video from their performance of Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, performed by Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen and conducted by Ludovic Morlot. Due to Covid regulations, the concert was held with no audience, but a recording is now published on bergenphilive.no.

Ørjan Matre: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra from Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on Vimeo.

Ørjan Matre was rewarded The Norwegians receives The Norwegian Publisher Price “Classical/contemporary Composer of the year”.

Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra is nominated for the Norwegian Publisher Price, in the category “Contemporary work of the year”. Ørjan Matre is also nominated as “Classical/contemporary Composer of the year”. The price winners will be announced on April 6, 2022. Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra is published by Edition Peters and was commissioned by Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen.

Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra will be “premiered” by Hans-Christian Kjos Sørensen, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Conductor: Ludovic Morlot) January 13th under strange circumstances. Due to Covid regulations, the concert is unfortunately cancelled, but a recording will be made and published on bergenphilive.no later this year.

Hans-Kristian Kjos Sørensen, Percussion

Four pieces from a distance has been nominated by The Norwegian Society of Composers for the 2021 “Work of the year” award. 20 pieces by Norwegian composer have been nominated. Four pieces from a distance was commissioned by The Norwegian Organ Festival and NyNorsk Messingkvintett and premiered at by NyNorsk Messingkvintett and Anders Eidsten Dahl at The Norwegian Organ Festival in 2020. The piece has since then had several performances and will be recorded together with Oslo Chamber Choir in a new version that includes choir during spring 2022.

The Norwegian National Youth Orchestra conducted by Johannes Gustavsson will give four performances of a new orchestral piece, Syklus (click link for more information).

In the spring of 2021, after more than a year of COVID restrictions, I felt the need to write music with a sense of flight, something light and not too heavy and serious. I simply ended up writing bicycle music. The inspiration comes from an actual bike ride I had with my family (wife and two children), the first real ride after long periods of lockdown, home schooling and quarantines. The speed of the bikes and the wind whistling around us gave a strong sensation of freedom. We also discovered that our four bicycle bells were tuned in a sore and beautiful minor chord. I have tried to transfer some of the feeling of speed and the slightly nostalgic sound of bicycle bells to the orchestra: The harmonies are based on the bicycle bells and the melody of a phrase that kept spinning in my head while we rode. Four of the musicians play the exact bicycle bells we used on our trip, and a percussionist also uses a bicycle as a percussion instrument.