Current Musical Heritage, 17 – 19 November

International Grieg Conference in Bergen, Norway 17 – 19 November 2023
The International Edvard Grieg Society, the Grieg Research Centre at the Faculty of Fine Arts – Music and Design University of Bergen and Kode Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen invite scholars, educators and performers to the Conference.

The conference takes place at the Grieg Academy, Bergen Public Library and Troldhaugen.

All applicants must pay for their own travel and accommodation. More practical information about program, conference venues, travel, and local accommodation will be sent to the participants in due time. Seminar sessions are free for all participants. Lunch will be covered for active participants.

For observing participants:
Please send name, country, e-mail address, and background information (studies, professional activities) to monica.jangaard@kodebergen.no.  

Organizers:

  • The International Edvard Grieg Society is a non-profit organisation, aiming to create a worldwide network of scholars, performers and music listeners who cherish the music of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.
     
  • Grieg Research Centre (UiB) at University of Bergen does research on Edvard Grieg’s works, his historical importance and cultural relevance in the past and the present. The centre’s goal is further to contribute to international research on the diverse traditions in Norwegian music succeeding Grieg and the close exchanges between regional music and international currents.
     
  • Kode Art Museums and Composer Homes Troldhaugen, Lysøen and Siljustøl, the homes of three of Norway’s greatest composers and artists through the times – Edvard Grieg, Ole Bull and Harald Sæverud – are a part of Kode, Art Museums and Composer Homes. Kode is one of the largest museums for art, craft, design and music in the Nordic countries.
     
  • The Grieg Academy – Faculty of Fine Art, Music, and Design, University of Bergen
    The Grieg Academy – Department of Music was established at the University of Bergen in 1995 and is now one of three departments at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (KMD). Our profile is modelled on internationally recognised performing arts environments (classical, jazz, folk music), composition, music therapy, musicology and music education.






Call for Papers

The International Edvard Grieg Society, the Grieg Research Centre at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Music and Design University of Bergen, and Kode Art Museums and Composer Homes invite music researchers to the
Current Musical Heritage – International Edvard Grieg Conference
Bergen 17 ­- 19 November 2023

To Edvard Grieg, music always was part of a quest against the suppression of individuality and the imagination of people living in a free society. This year’s Grieg conferencewill, in the spirit of Grieg, address the value of musical heritage in relation to recent political developments that made an impact on how we conceive national sovereignty and common democratic values in Europe and all over the world.

We will welcome contributions revisiting musical heritage used as a tool for trans-national cultural understanding, nation building, and nation branding. This perspective requires a critical rethinking of musical icons such as Grieg and national musical heritage in times, where ‘borderless’ global culture is set up against long-standing national traditions, challenging inherited value systems and canons. This leads also to a revaluation of ‘classical art music’ and its relationship to local place, notions of belonging, and vernacular traditions.

Conference program, keynote speakers, and practical information for participants:

See conference web page on https://www.uib.no/en/griegresearch

Conference venues:
Troldhaugen (Kode Art Museums and Composer Homes)
Grieg Academy (University of Bergen)

Application procedures:

  1. Submission of research papers or artistic research presentations: Please send an abstract (300 words) by 1 July 2023 to arnulf.mattes@uib.no. Proposals will be assessed by 15 August 2023. 
  2. Observing participants: Please send name, country, e-mail address, and background information (studies, professional activities) to monica.jangaard@kodebergen.no.  

All applicants must pay for their own travel and accommodation. More practical information about program, conference venues, travel, and local accommodation will be sent to the participants in due time. Seminar sessions are free for all participants. Lunch will be covered for active participants.

Organizers:
The International Edvard Grieg Society
is a non-profit organisation, aiming to create a worldwide network of scholars, performers and music listeners who cherish the music of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.

Grieg Research Centre (UiB)
The Grieg Research Centre at University of Bergen does research on Edvard Grieg’s works, his historical importance and cultural relevance in the past and the present. The centre’s goal is further to contribute to international research on the diverse traditions in Norwegian music succeeding Grieg and the close exchanges between regional music and international currents.

Kode Art Museums and Composer Homes
Troldhaugen, Lysøen and Siljustøl, the homes of three of Norway’s greatest composers and artists through the times – Edvard Grieg, Ole Bull and Harald Sæverud – are a part of Kode, Art Museums and Composer Homes. Kode is one of the largest museums for art, craft, design and music in the Nordic countries.

The Grieg Academy – Faculty of Fine Art, Music, and Design, University of Bergen
The Grieg Academy – Department of Music was established at the University of Bergen in 1995 and is now one of three departments at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (KMD). Our profile is modelled on internationally recognised performing arts environments (classical, jazz, folk music), composition, music therapy, musicology and music education.

  

Grieg in Performance

The International Edvard Grieg Society, the Grieg Research Centre at the University of Bergen, and KODE Edvard Grieg Museum Troldhaugen invite to

International Research Seminar
2 – 3 September 2022

This seminar’s aim is to shed new light on the performance traditions related to Edvard Grieg in the context of 19th century historical performance-studies, ‘historical informed performance (HIP) and the analysis of historical recordings. The research field on 19th century historical performance practice has increased immensely during the recent decades. However, there still exist few studies examining Grieg from the perspective of performance practice, despite of his obvious significance as composer-performer and even one of the pioneers of early recording. This seminar’s goal is hence to increase our knowledge and understanding of interpretive practices related to Grieg, and how they developed, transmitted, diversified during the 20thcentury. Accordingly, Grieg’s own historical recordings and those with performers closely related to him performing his works deserve special attention and will be a main theme of the seminar. Topics related to this are:

  • Issues and gains in reconstructing Grieg’s performance style with focus on his chamber music for strings (violin sonatas and cello sonata) and his works for piano solo.
  • Issues of analyzing Grieg’s performance style as it is documented in various historical sources
  • The value of historical recordings for understanding Grieg’s compositional poetics ‘beyond the score’   
  • Grieg’s performance style in the context of the influences, schools, and traditions of 19th century pianism
  • History of effect of Grieg as a performer, the formation of national traditions, and the history of stylistic developments

The seminar will be hold at Troldhaugen and the Grieg academy, with period instruments available for active participants. Among the invited speakers will be Liv Glaser and Georgia Violoti (other speakers TBA):

Liv Glaser has been recognized as being amongst the elite of Norwegian pianists. She studied in Oslo with Robert Riefling, at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique in Paris and the Moscow Music Conservatory. Later she was studying with Paul Badura-Skoda in Vienna, besides indepth studies of the fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson at Cornell University. Among her recordings are Mozart’s piano sonatas, both on modern grand and fortepiano, Clementi, Schubert, and Grieg’s Lyric Pieces. Glaser has been teaching at the Norwegian Academy of Music since 1973. She was awarded HM The King’s Medal of Merit 1965, the Lindeman Prize 2004 and the Grieg Prize 2014.

Georgia Violoti is a lecturer in the Department of Music and Media at the University of Surrey and her research areas embrace musical performance studies, empirical musicology, music psychology, music education, historical and cultural musicology. She has published on Grieg’s historical performances in international journals and is currently co-editing the book ‘Recorded Music in Creative Practices: Mediation, Performance, Pedagogy’ for the Routledge SEMPRE series.  

There will be a limited number of individual paper presentations. Please send your abstract (ca. 300 words with short biography) by 1 July 2022 to: arnulf.mattes@uib.no.

Grieg international piano competition: The participants are invited to follow the competition program and attend the concerts from 26 August to 3 September 2022: www.griegcompetition.com  

New Executive Committe from 2021

Siebert Nix (The Netherlands) was re-elected as president of The International Edvard Grieg Society at the General Assembly Meeting on Zoom 18 April 2021.

Wojciech Stępień (Poland) was re-elected as vice president at the same meeting.

A new Executive Committee was also elected:
Arnulf Mattes (Chair), Norway/Germany                    
Signe Bakke, Norway                                            
Ida Habbestad, Norway  

Monica Jangaard (Troldhaugen)                               
Gregory Martin (USA)                                      
        

Reference group:
Martha Berit Belt, Norway
Knut Christian Jansson, Norway
Fumie Masaki, Japan
Christoph Siems, Germany

Liubov Syniak, Ukraine