Below are some of the programmes I strive to make room for

Danish Symphony

Performed in January 2025

Danish Symphony explores ideas of national identity and belonging through two composers looking at a country from an outside perspective. Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony is paired with Matthew Grouse’s Danish Symphony, a new work written from the perspective of a British composer living in Denmark. Together, the two works offer different perspectives on the idea of national identity
Repertoire
Mendelssohn – Symphony No.3 “Scottish Symphony”
Matthew Grouse – A Danish Symphony

Women, Music, Freedom

To be performed in March 2027

This programme explores women’s struggle for freedom, identity and equality through music by female composers from different parts of the world. In collaboration with researcher Louise Rognlien, the music is placed in the context of the different societies, political movements and historical events that have shaped these composers’ lives and work.
The programme takes its title from Woman, Life, Freedom, the internationally recognised symbol of the struggle for women’s freedom and rights. Together, words and music create a concert that offers different perspectives on what freedom can mean – and what it has taken, and still takes, to achieve it.
Repertoire
Line Tjørnhøj – Sorg
Chen Yi – Duo Ye
Jessie Montgomery – Shift, Change, Turn
Mercedeh Gholami – La Sieste

Finale

To be performed in 2028

This programme brings together two works that explore the theatrical possibilities of the concert stage, gradually blurring the boundaries between orchestra, conductor and performer.
Anne Sophie Andersen’s Violin Concerto sees the orchestra gradually dissolve, while the conductor is left practising basic conducting gestures in a mirror before the musicians leave the stage. In the second half, Mauricio Kagel’s Finale takes the conductor into a different kind of drama, where his physical presence and authority gradually break down, ultimately leaving the orchestra to continue without him.
Repertoire
Anne Sophie Andersen – Violin Concerto
Mauricio Kagel – Finale

Music of the World Leaders

Performed in March 2026

Music of World Leaders explores the connections between music, politics and ideology through the musical worlds of Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Together with historian Søren Hein, the programme explores four very different stories of how music intersects with power, identity and history. Through Mozart, Ravel, Wagner and Shostakovich, these stories are brought to life through music.
Repertoire
[Merkel] Mozart – Oboe Concerto
[Obama] Ravel – Pavane for a Dead Princess
[Hitler] Wagner – Siegfried Idyll
[Stalin] Shostakovich – Waltz No. 2 in c-minor