Tormod hunting low and high

The concert is at Ridehuset, Akershus Festning in Oslo on Friday October 17 at 1700.

Tormod commissioned and premiered Ørjan Matre’s extremely challenging piece Hunting Low and High at the BrassWind Festival in 2006. The work is somewhat a parody on the traditional air varie and is described to be one of the most extreme pieces in the euphonium literature. It is full of colourful sounds, skillfull orchestration and rather crazy ideas where the soloist is taken from minimalistic through rather ballistic cadenzas. Ørjan Matre is the man behind the test piece from Norway´s 2006 Brass Band Championships, Klang(!) – translated Sound(!).

A complete sound file from the premiére and the full score of Hunting Low and High is available from the composer´s website: Ørjan Matre

The Norwegian Army Band, Bergen (FMKV) is currently recognized as Norway´s leading professional wind ensemble. They have produced several merited recordings and is on this occasion led by their artistic director Trond Korsgård. Korsgård won the TV broadcasted contest ”Conductor of the Year” in 2003 with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. FMKV's website

The Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival is an annual international festival of high artistic standing whose aim is to present modern music and related art forms in Oslo. More on ultima.no

Tormod commented: ”I am delighted to get the invitation to perform Matre´s highly enjoyable work for a second time. There are certainly a lot of contemporary pieces of music out there which doesn´t get a second chance to be performed, but this work really deserves to be heard several times. It it is a masterly written piece which indeed represents something new in the euphonium repertoire. I am happy to visit the prestigious Ultima Festival for the first time and it is a great privilege to work with Korsgård and the great Norwegian Army Band, Bergen again.”

The combination of band, conductor and soloist is reported to be in excellent shape.