Tine Thing Helseth hosts music festival at Munch Museum

Norwegian trumpet virtuoso, Tine Thing Helseth, is to host a music festival as part of the Munch150 celebrations being held this year to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Edvard Munch, his art and life.

Tine@Munch – to be held at the Munch Museum in Oslo this coming weekend – presents a series of concerts featuring not only Ms Helseth herself and her jazz/tango ensemble, Tine Thing Helseth Quintet, but also pianists Leif Ove Andsnes, Kathryn Stott and Gunnar Flagstad, violinists Nicola Benedetti and Charlie Siem, cellist Truls Mørk, soprano Isa Katharina Gericke, and pianist and humourist Ingrid Bjørnov.

One of the foremost trumpetists of today, Ms Helseth has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras – including the NDR orchestras of Hamburg and Hannover, the Swedish and Danish Radio orchestras, the Swedish and Australian Chamber orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and BBC Scottish Symphony orchestras.

Tine Thing Helseth has also appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall and at London’s Royal Albert Hall, to which she returns in August to make her BBC Proms debut, with the London premiere of Chute d’Étoiles: Hommage à Anselm Kiefer by Matthias Pintscher.  She also appears at an intimate chamber Prom at Cadogan Hall, with her all-female brass ensemble, tenThing.

Ms Helseth had the honour of opening the Nobel Peace Prize concert in 2007, and in the same year she was awarded the Luipolde Prize at the Kissinger Sommer festival for the “best and most intriguing young artist”.  She also won a Spellemann Award (Norwegian Grammy) for her debut album, ten Thing.  Tine Thing Helseth is an ambassador for Born to Play, which aims to encourage and engage young musicians.

The idea behind Tine@Munch is for visitors to be inspired by Munch – perhaps by one of his paintings, or by the music to which he listened.

“A festival is to me an intense and intimate meeting with music and feelings,” says Tine. “To be able to present a festival in the heart of Edvard Munch’s art is a privilege, and special in so many ways. I grew up just a few steps away from The Munch Museum, and I visited it ever so often when growing up. When I’m abroad I’m both proud and touched when seeing how Munch’s unique artistic language communicates with people in all ages and on all continents. To me communication is a key word for music and art.”

The opening concert will take place under Munch’s Alma Mater and his draft for The Sun, in the main hall of the museum. More intimate concerts will be held in smaller areas of the museum.  Composers featured during the festival include Beethoven, Bach, Puccini, Brahms, Delius, Richard Strauss, César Franck, Erich Korngold, Ravel, Debussy, André Previn, Christian Sinding and Jeno Hubay, and there’s a world premiere by contemporary Norwegian composer Gisle Kverndokk.

In this anniversary year for Edvard Munch, the Museum will hold an exhibition of his work entitled Munch150, presenting main works from various stages of the artist’s career, to show his distinctive contribution to modern European fine art.  Around 220 paintings and 50 artworks on paper will be exhibited.

Tine@Munch runs from June 7th to 9th at the Munch Museum in Oslo.  For further information, please visit the Tine@Munch website.