The Orchestra's Best Friends
"The more she learns about symphonic music, the more meaningful her concert experiences become," says Tulla Wahlstedt, who heads Crescendo, the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra's friends' association.
“I think you’re holding up surprisingly well for a 100-year-old,” jokes Tulla Wahlstedt, head of the Crescendo Friends Association.
But it is not the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra (KSO) that is celebrating its anniversary; rather, it is the tradition of symphonic music in Kristiansand that is being honored. To mark the occasion, the editor-in-chief of Crescendo has invited KSO’s program director, Hans Bodin, for coffee and a chat about the anniversary. For what does symphonic music mean to the city’s residents today?
Joy and Knowledge
According to Tulla Wahlstedt herself, she was a fairly seasoned concertgoer but not particularly knowledgeable about symphonic music when Stefan Sköld, then director of the KSO, asked her to start a friends’ association for the orchestra.
“I was, of course, familiar with the major works, and I’ve always enjoyed classical music. But now I find that my concert experiences are becoming more intense as I learn more about the music, the composers, and the era in which they wrote their music,” says Wahlstedt.
She believes the association’s activities attract people: the chance to participate in rehearsals, special member evenings, and trips abroad. In addition, the orchestra has come a long way and has an outstanding music director.
“An orchestra of this caliber deserves a strong friends’ association. Crescendo is made up of people from all walks of life and interest groups. We all need the peace and authenticity that music can give us,” says Wahlstedt.
Unique quality
Like Wahlstedt, KSO Program Director Hans Bodin believes that the activities surrounding the concerts make them more accessible. He is delighted that more and more people are finding their way to konsertsalen.
“There’s something quite unique about the acoustic experience and the quality of the music. Remember, it’s only the music of the geniuses—the crème de la crème—that we get to enjoy in konsertsalen,” says Bodin.
– So a musical form that, in a digital society, should have been obsolete and long since abandoned by pop culture actually has every chance of becoming even more popular over the next 100 years?
– I think so. We’ve never played concerts as frequently as we do now. There are no microphones, no amplifiers; everything you hear is created by people and their physical exertion, their muscles, their breath, their concentration.
The country's youngest
The Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra is one of Norway’s eight professional symphony orchestras and consists of 71 full-time musicians. The KSO is a young and dynamic ensemble undergoing rapid development, with members from 17 different countries. The chief conductor is Nathalie Stutzmann. She took over the baton and the podium in 2018, succeeding Giordano Bellincampi, who had served as chief conductor since 2013. The orchestra’s principal guest conductor is Julian Rachlin.
As KSO celebrates a century-long tradition in 2020, it does so as the nation’s youngest symphony orchestra and with the nation’s youngest friends’ association. Crescendo is, however, a fitting name—the musical term means “increasing intensity,” which is a good description of the association’s activity: Barely two years after its founding in 2018, the association had around 600 members.
So while the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra keeps getting better and better, its membership continues to grow, steadily approaching 1,000 members.
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Text and photo: Amund Hestsveen[ult_buttons btn_title="READ MORE ABOUT CRESCENDO" btn_link="url:http%3A%2F%2Fcrescendokristiansand.no%2F||target:%20_blank|" btn_title_color="#ffffff" btn_bg_color="#7a3434" btn_bg_color_hover="#5e5e5e" btn_title_color_hover="#ffffff" btn_icon_pos="ubtn-sep-icon-at-left"]