We have gathered a few Storsalen highlights in the article below, but if you are curious about the full programme, you can see it here.
Silje Nergaard og Bodø Big Band
This is the evening for anyone who loves jazz and big band.
Silje Nergaard is one of Norway’s strongest jazz voices – an award-winning vocalist and songwriter with a rare ability to unite the intimate with the grand. She had her early breakthrough after a jam session at Moldejazz at the age of 16, and has since collaborated with major stars including jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and Grammy Award winner Al Jarreau.
With roots going back to 1977, Bodø Big Band has for almost five decades been a driving force in Northern Norwegian jazz and big band music. Here, experience, joy of playing and musical power meet in an ensemble equally at home in the classic big band tradition and in a more modern, exploratory expression. Under the direction of Roger Johansen, the band has developed a distinctive sound marked by precision, energy and strong communication, and over the years they have shared the stage with an impressive range of Norwegian and international names.
When Silje now meets Bodø Big Band during True Northern Arts Festival, everything is in place for an evening where her warm, characteristic expression can flourish in encounter with the big band’s power, colour and swing – a concert for everyone who loves jazz with nerve, elegance and full force.
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Laila (NO)
This is the evening for anyone who wants to experience history in Harstad, when the classic film comes to the big screen with a full symphony orchestra.
Laila is one of the great jewels of Norwegian silent film history. When the film was released in 1929, it was widely distributed internationally and was regarded as one of the most successful Norwegian silent films. It is based on Jens Andreas Friis’ story Fra Finmarken. The film is also considered the first Norwegian film in which Sámi life and culture play a central role.
What makes this production far more than a nostalgic film screening is the Arctic Philharmonic. Conducted by Ingar Bergby, they appear with a full symphony orchestra on stage, giving Laila a powerful, living and physical presence – the kind that can only arise when the music is created at the same moment as the images unfold. Here, Gunnar Schnéevoigt’s silent film is united with music from Ole Olsen’s 1893 opera Lajla, arranged for orchestra by Halldor Krogh.
And the film has exactly the kind of grand drama that suits an orchestra of this scale: wolf attacks on the mountain plateau, missing children, hidden origins, love, identity and sweeping landscapes. When the Arctic Philharmonic lifts this story live, Laila becomes not only an encounter with film history, but an evening where the old silent film suddenly feels new, fierce and overwhelmingly alive.
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Alexey Botvinov med Hærens Musikkorps (UA/NO)
This is the concert for anyone who knows how magical it can be when a great pianist meets an orchestra in full flight.
Alexey Botvinov is one of Ukraine’s leading pianists and an artist with an unmistakable aura on stage. He is particularly known as an exceptional interpreter of Rachmaninov, has performed in more than 40 countries, and is also the pianist who has played Bach’s Goldberg Variations more than 300 times – a small fun fact that says a great deal about both his calibre, stamina and depth of focus.
Botvinov is also the founder of the international festival Odessa Classics, and has for years been an important ambassador for Ukrainian cultural life to audiences across Europe.
The Norwegian Army Band, for its part, is one of Northern Norway’s major cultural institutions. The band was founded in Harstad in 1911 and today consists of 27 full-time musicians. With a repertoire ranging from classical music to jazz, pop and rock, the band is known for its flexibility, power and ability to connect with audiences.
When Botvinov’s poetic and intense piano playing meets the rich, precise and magnificent sound of the Norwegian Army Band, everything is in place for a concert experience with both weight and fire. This is the evening for audiences who want to hear an international top soloist in close interplay with one of the region’s most distinctive musical pillars.
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Cirqus Hialøs (NO)
This is the performance for anyone who likes music not only to be heard, but also seen and felt in a stage experience where concert, acrobatics and visual theatre merge.
Can you mix concert and circus? Absolutely. Cirqus Hialøs is quite simply a concert circus: live folk music is performed on stage while the circus artists respond with movement, acrobatics, trapeze, rope, hair suspension and dance. The music comes from the award-winning Scanian folk music band Hialøsa, who play fiddles and double bass, sing, and use electronic soundscapes.
Around them, four circus artists create a physical, airborne and surprising universe, constantly moving the performance between concert, contemporary circus and stage art.
In other words, this is not a traditional concert with a little movement on the side, nor a pure circus act with background music. The point is precisely the interplay. The music drives the bodies forward, and the bodies give the music new life. Eight artists appear on stage, and the expression ranges from raw folk tunes and foot-stomping rhythms to aerial acrobatics and powerful, almost ritualistic images. The result is energetic, sensory and unpredictable – more party than lecture, more experience than explanation.
This is particularly well suited to audiences who enjoy circus, physical theatre, folk music or stage art with high tempo and strong visual impressions. It can appeal both to those who are curious about something new, and to those who already love it when music and movement meet in the same room.
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Performances in Storsalen:
