It is with joy and pride that the organizers open the third edition of the Lofoten Piano Festival on Monday 9 July. Several of this year’s artists have been on the wish list for several years. The organizers are therefore more than confident that there will be many exceptional performances this year as well. The music selection ranges very widely, with a lot of well-known and some lesser-known music. The music challenges anywhere from two to eight hands at the same time. The total of 15 concerts are held in everything from Lofoten’s many churches to cultural centers and cafes. In other words, the variation is large in many areas this year.
Judging by the advance sales, the festival has hit well with both artists and repertoire. The organizers are also grateful that our own Minister of Culture Trine Skei Grande stands for the opening of the festival in Lofoten Kulturhus.
This year’s artistic director, the French pianist Bertrand Chamayou, was engaged shortly after the festival in 2016. He had then participated and made a very strong impression during the festival. He is undoubtedly one of the most prominent French musicians today. An example that shows what he is good at is that he was Leif Ove Andsnes’s first choice when he started his festival in Rosendal in 2016.
– It is precisely finding an artistic director with international merits and networks that makes Bertrand important to us. We could probably find good people ourselves, but he personally knows many of the biggest names we have today.
This is far more effective for us than if we were to approach via agents ourselves. The creation of the program itself also becomes very flexible and efficient when you work with acquaintances, says general manager Knut Kirkesæther in the Lofoten Piano Festival.
Artists of the year
This year’s program can once again boast Leif Ove Andsnes in the program. He will take part in several of the concerts where he will, among other things, perform selected pieces from his latest release of compositions for piano by Jean Sibelius.
– Yes, we didn’t think we would get Leif Ove here since he participated as recently as last summer. But he is friends with our artistic director, so that agreement was the first to be sealed, says Kirkesæther.
In addition to Andsnes, this year’s program also proudly boasts the winner of the Chopin competition in 2010 – the toughest and most prestigious – Russian Yulianna Avdeeva. – I heard her “live” the same year she won, and she has been on the wish list ever since. But not until Chamayou came into the picture could this wish become a reality, says a smiling and satisfied general manager.
Special for this year is that a chamber orchestra is being engaged which will be an active part of the festival. Oslo Camerata has made a name for itself beyond Norway’s borders with its playing. Under the leadership of Arvid Engegård, they come to Lofoten.
– With a chamber orchestra among the musicians, we get far greater opportunities for breadth in the programme. For example, we can now boast two so-called piano concerts, in addition to the fact that the orchestra itself also performs with pure orchestral music. Therefore, I would argue that this year we have a greater variety than ever before.
Artists:
Bertrand Chamayou, piano (France)
Yulianna Avdeeva, piano (Russia)
Francesco Piemontesi, piano (Switzerland)
Ah Ruem Ahn, piano (South-Korea)
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano (Norway)
Lise de la Salle, piano (France)
Eir Inderhaug, soprano (Norway)
Maximilian Schnaus, organ (Switzerland)
Brynjar Kolbergsrud, trumpet (Norway)
Oslo Camerata, string orchestra conducted by Arvid Engegård (Norway)
Engegårdkvartetten, string quartet (Norway)
Lofoten Piano Festival
The Lofoten Piano Festival was only a joke when all the grand pianos started flocking to the region as a result of the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival (last held in 2017). When it became clear that there was no separate piano festival in Norway, it became interesting. The first edition of the piano festival started in 2014.
– It is in the name that the piano is in focus. Although we have always allowed the pianists participating in the chamber edition to play solo, this was an opportunity to make even more of it. And with no less than 10 concert grand pianos in our small region – all very good – it was very natural to seize the opportunity. This unique situation has attracted attention far beyond the country’s borders, says Kirkesæther.
The Lofoten Piano Festival collaborates with the Grieg competition in Bergen, where the winner gets to come to the festival. We are therefore proud to have the winner from 2016, Ah Ruem Ahn, as our pianist this year.
Photo: Lofoten Piano Festival
