Swedish Music Spring – The Sound Over the Sea

A Swedish-American collaborative project initiated by composer Marie Samuelsson, whose work The Sound Over the Sea has been used as the title of this concert. The origin was a meeting with American conductor Bobby Collins on the presentation of inspiring concerts featuring new music. Three works each by American and Swedish composers are presented here by Bobby Collins and KammarensembleN. The same series was presented a year ago in Seattle, with the Sound Ensemble.

Three of the pieces have literary inspiration. Sarah Bassingthwaighte composed Let There Be Sparrows, Then in winter, which called to mind British poet Sean O’Brien’s poem At the Solstice. Anders Hultqvist’s Among Travelling Angels is one of several pieces composed with inspiration from the poem Alphabet by Danish poet Inger Christensen. Ivo Nilsson was inspired to compose Rapidità by Italian writer Italo Calvino: speed is in focus here, but the speed of thought, rather than musical mastery.

Two of the pieces – Alex Shapiro’s Archipelago and Marie Samuelsson’s The Sound Over the Sea – reflect geographic conditions in various ways. And in Ryan Hare’s rhythmically tense Giga, inspired by Baroque dance suites, it is the ensemble itself that comprises a continuously changing geography.

In collaboration with Svensk Musikvår
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