Sounds Unseen: With Germany’s The Olsen Trio

Have you ever been so transported by music that you had to close your eyes? Research estimates that up to 85% of our perception is mediated through vision. Remove that visual input, and other senses are heightened, concentrated. Now, imagine an intensely intimate program of contemporary chamber music (with a touch of baroque), perfomed live, moving in and out of utter darkness. Lean back, close your eyes, and experience Sounds Unseen.

“Whoever comes to enjoy this fascinating experience, breathing calmly with the music as it is played, being open to the darkness with wide-open eyes, suddenly hears the music in a completely different way, and far more intensively.”                                    

“As a listener, one loses all contours, as well as a sense of time. As a result, one gains immensely in concentration.”                                                                                  

Program

Peteris Vasks “Pianissimo” from The Book for solo cello
J.S. Bach Violin Sonata in A Major
Alfred Schnittke Sonata No. 2 (Quasi una Sonata)
Arvo Pärt “Für Alina”
Peteris Vasks “episodi e canto perpetuo”

Artist Biographies

The Norwegian violinist Magnus Boye Hansen studied at Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo and the Universität der Künste in Berlin. He has toured Europe and USA with The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, with concerts in Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall. Festivals Magnus regularly plays at include Risør Chamber Music Festival, and Podium festivals in Norway, Germany and Iceland, and he plays regularly with Tromsø Chamber Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Ensemble Allegria, an ensemble of which he also is a founding member. Magnus is an active chamber musician with a particular love for music that is rarely played, and he has this experience through numerous concerts in the festivals associated with the PODIUM network.

Steven Walter is a cellist and “cultural entrepreneur” currently based in Berlin and Stuttgart, Germany. Born in 1986 and raised near Stuttgart, Steven was early to discover his passion for classical music. He started playing the cello at age 8 and soon began performing with various ensembles. After graduating, Steven studied the cello in Oslo and Detmold. He has performed as soloist and chamber musician at many venues in Europe and throughout Skandinavia, and has received invitations to several international Festivals, e.g. International Chamber Music Festival, Egersund International Chamber Music Festival, PODIUM Festival Iceland, Idyllwild Festival, Markgräfler Herbst and Podiumfestivalen Haugesund. He is a member of the International Mahler Orchestra as well as founding member of the Badische Kammerphilharmonie. Additionally to his performance career, Steven is a very engaged cultural entrepreneur and manager. He has founded and currently is artistic & managing director of the PODIUM Festival Esslingen (Germany), a very successful innovative European chamber music festival. In recognition of his work as an innovative music promoter he received a prestigious ECHO Klassik Award in 2010 and nomination to Cultural Manager of the Year 2011.

Pianist Mathias Susaas Halvorsen studied with professor Jiri Hlinka at Barratt Due Musikkinstitutt in Oslo 2007 – 2010 and with professor Gerald Fauth at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig 2011 – 2013. During Mathias’ time at Barratt Due Musikkinstitutt he performed several times as a soloist with the school’s orchestra in pieces such as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Poulenc’s concerto for two pianos and Shostakovich Piano Concerto no. 1. In 2009 he re-discovered and performed Piano Concerto No. 5 by the Norwegian composer Halfdan Cleve in Vilnius with the Lithuania State Symphony under conductor Gintaras Rinkevicius. In 2008 Mathias founded the PODIUM festival in Haugesund together with Guro Pettersen. Recently he has performed in places like Radialsystem in Berlin, St. John Smith Square, Ernst Deutsch Theater, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Hamburg Schauspielhaus and Oslo Konserthus and collaborated with artist such as Laurent Chétouane and Peaches. He has also performed at several international festivals including Klara Festival in Brussel, Yoko Onos Meltdown, Brighton Festival and PODIUM Festival in Esslingen Esslingen.


“By holding concerts of contemporary music at SPACE Gallery, a venue known for hosting cutting-edge art of all kinds, the folks from the Portland Chamber Music Festival have taken an important step toward promoting classical music as something that can come from and be about today.” -Portland Press Herald