FREE Concert Series Event | Grand Forks and Sioux Falls Locations
We’re thrilled to announce that Popplers Music will be hosting the internationally acclaimed pianist Oda Voltersvik at both of our locations this fall. Mark your calendars for a FREE captivating evening in Grand Forks on November 8th and in Sioux Falls on December 4th.
Oda Voltersvik is renowned for her poetic interpretations and technical prowess, captivating audiences around the globe with her unique blend of artistry and emotion. Her upcoming performance, centered on the works of Nordic female composers, promises to be an inspiring journey through rich, lesser-known repertoires that will resonate deeply with music lovers of all ages.
Our goal in bringing internationally acclaimed pianist Oda Voltersvik to each of our store locations is to inspire students, offer piano teachers a chance to showcase the possibilities within their students’ studies, and provide the community with the opportunity to experience music that is rarely heard.
Join us in welcoming Oda Voltersvik to our community, where we celebrate not only her remarkable talent but also her dedication to bringing underrepresented voices in music to the forefront. This is an event you won’t want to miss!
Concert Details:
This programme presents piano works by lesser-known and underrepresented Nordic female composers including Elfrida Andrée, Laura Netzel, Agathe Backer Grøndahl, Inger Bang Lund and Pauline Hall. More info about the programme can be found here: www.odavoltersvik.com/nordicfemalecomposers
Elfrida Andrée (1841 – 1929), daughter of a liberal politician, was a female pioneer of her time. Elfrida was both the first Swedish woman to compose major works such as symphonies and to gain an organist diploma. She was also the first Swedish female to appear as a conductor. Despite being met with a growing opposition to women as musicians and composers in the 1880s, Elfrida composed an impressive list of works including an opera, orchestral works, songs and an enormous amount of chamber music and works with choir. She described her motto as “the elevation of womankind”.
The Finnish-born Swedish Laura Netzel (1839 – 1927) was almost as productive as Elfrida, writing an extensive number of chamber works and songs, works for piano, three concertos, as well as orchestral and choral works. While publishing works under the pseudonym N. Lago, she received great reviews at home and in Europe, describing her music as original, bold and with a Nordic tone. Her compositional style is the late Romantic style with elements from the French contemporary music. After her true female identity was revealed in 1891, Laura unfortunately experienced views from the Stockholm press of her music being “too intricate”, as they tended to prefer technical complexity among male composers. Laura also worked as a concert arranger, orchestral director, and for charitable causes.
Simultaneously in Norway, Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847-1907) wrote almost 70 opuses including songs, piano pieces, orchestra and choir. Being an accomplished international pianist and a close friend of Edvard Grieg, her endeavors included three performances of his piano concerto with Edvard himself on the conducting podium. Writing in a letter to Elfrida that orchestral writing was not really ‘in my genre, I think’, her piano pieces are impressively virtuosic and full of characterful, including several opuses of etudes.
The Bergen – born composer Inger Bang Lund (1876 – 1968) got her first works published already when she was 14 years old. She composed more than 100 works for piano, violin and voice. With Schubert, Schumann and Chopin among her favourite composers, her works are mostly titled character pieces, often with folkloristic elements. Inger studied with the well-known composer & violinist Johan Halvorsen in Christiania and soon after with the neo-classical composer Alfredo Casella in Rome. Within the years 1900 – 1912, she published a high number of works in Christiana as a female composer of her time. She held many concerts in Rome, Kristiania and in Bergen, often together with the soprano Nina Grieg (wife of Edvard Grieg) in Bergen and particularly with the renown norwegian soprano Kaia Eide Norena in Kristiania in 1911.
Pauline Hall (1890 – 1969) represents an exception among Norwegian female composers of her time with her compositions in the grander formats. Having to take on many roles in the music field, she mentioned she supported herself “by everything else than composing!” In spite of this, her works include music for choir, orchestral works, chamber music, songs, piano pieces, as well as music for theatre, ballet, film, TV and radio! Two years spent in Paris from 1912 – 1914 became crucial to Pauline`s compositional style, strongly influenced by the Impressionism. This can be heard in the her 4 piano pieces, Op.1, published in 1913. The new European modern impulses that Pauline expressed through her works were met with both enthusiasm and scepticism by the reviewers in Norway. But the Verlaine – Suite from 1929, which she premiered by renting what is today the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra together with two colleagues, finally gave Pauline a decisive breakthrough in Norway. In 1938, she founded “Ny Musikk”, a Norwegian branch of the International Society for Contemporary Music.
Concert Text Details Written By: Oda Voltersvik
Grand Forks Piano Department Manager: [email protected] | 701-746-7471
Sioux Falls Piano Department Manager: [email protected] | 605-336-6332