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.