11:30–11:50 Studioscenen
Mario Bertoncini: Alleluia I
Reinhold Friedl
PIANO ACTIONS
Grand pianos, spiders and a museum set in motion by Nils Henrik Asheim
We are all pianists!
For one day, the piano takes over Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Grand pianos, upright pianos, electric keyboards, self-playing technology, loose piano parts and instruments have been prepared, rebuilt or taken apart. Some are played by professional pianists, some by students and children, some by dancers, and some by you.
PIANO ACTIONS is composer and curator Nils Henrik Asheim’s six-hour exploration of the piano as instrument, object, body and playground. The event is made for families, young audiences and curious listeners of all ages.
In the art center’s Studio Stage, Reinhold Friedl, Ellen Ugelvik, Christian Wallumrød and many other outstanding pianists perform throughout the day, turning familiar piano traditions into new games and experiments. In the corridors and foyer, piano students from the Norwegian Academy of Music and pupils from Bærum kulturskole play prepared pieces and improvisations.
The building is full of things happening at once. Follow a sound into a corridor, stay for a while in the Studio Stage, go outside, come back. Among the surprises, oversized spider-like sculptures that stretch piano strings and hammers into new bodies.
The piano leaves the home, the practice studio and the concert hall, and moves into the galleries, the landscape, and into your hands.
Nagelhus Schia © Tale Hendnes
Nils Henrik Asheim © Line Owren
Jennie Bringaker © Børre Høstland
Concert programme
11:50–12:00 Studioscenen
Morton Feldman: Piece for four pianos
Four pianists
12:00–12:25 Studioscenen
The Pathétique Legacy
Five pianists
Nils Henrik Asheim: Sonata Building Kit
12:30–12:40 Studioscenen
Reinhold Friedl: Music for Piano… Spring / Flower / Cracker / Stream
12:40–12:50 Studioscenen
Ingfrid Nyhus: solo
13:00–13:25 Studioscenen
The Appassionata apparitions
Four pianists
Nils Henrik Asheim: Sonata Building Kit
13:30–13:40 Studioscenen
Tyler Futrell: Ghost in the Machine
Ellen Ugelvik
13:40–13:50 Studioscenen
Jonas Cambien: solo
13:50–14:00 Studioscenen
Isabel Anders: solo
14:00–14:30 Studioscenen
The Great Spin
Sixteen pianists from Bærum kulturskole
A Chopin waltz carousel
14:30–14:40 Studioscenen
Yun Kyung Lee: Strings
14:40–14:50 Studioscenen
Reinhold Friedl: Epitaph
14:50–15:00 Studioscenen
John Cage: Suite for Toy Piano
Késia Decoté
15:00–15:25 Studioscenen
The Hammerklavier polarities
Six pianists
Nils Henrik Asheim: Sonata Building Kit
15:30–15:40 Studioscenen
Morton Feldman: Piano Three Hands
15:40–15:50 Studioscenen
Christian Wallumrød: solo
15:50–16:00 Studioscenen
Mario Bertoncini: Alleluia II
Reinhold Friedl
16:00–16:40 Studioscenen
The Waldstein Migrations
Thirty pianists
Nils Henrik Asheim: Sonata Building Kit
Ingfrid Breie Nyhus © Signe Fuglesteg Luksengard
Reinhold Friedl © David Heerde
Ellen Ugelvik © Erika Hebbert
Christian Wallumrød © Julie Hrncirová / Abrakadabra
Késia Decoté © Antonio Martins Neto
Joakim Rainer © Cristina Marx
Isabel Anders © Manuel Miethe
Jonas Cambien © Free
Keys to PIANO ACTIONS
- The title points to the piano’s inner mechanism. Pianos are not only instruments. They are also boxes of wood and metal, full of hammers and strings. Press one key, and the whole machine starts to move.
- Try the self-playing Steinway Spirio grand piano. You can play on the keys or draw sound on an iPad. No experience is needed.
- Touch the sculptures. They come alive through sound, movement and touch.
- Follow the dancers from Nagelhus Schia Productions and Rud upper secondary school as they move through the building and outdoors.
- Like your classics? Beethoven, Bach and Chopin show up, but perhaps not quite as you know them. The day also draws on Cage, Feldman, Kagel and Henie Onstad’s experimental history, where music could also be action, instruction, theatre and play.
- Mario Bertoncini’s Alleluia I and Alleluia II (1982) uses Japanese gongs and a wooden resonance box, kindly made available by Valeska Bertoncini and the Scelsi Foundation in Rome. Reinhold Friedl performs these works on his newly developed instrument, pianoX.
Steinway & Sons. Photo: Steinway Piano Gallery
Artistic director and composer
- Nils Henrik Asheim
Pianists
- Isabel Anders
- Jonas Cambien
- Késia Décoté
- Reinhold Friedl
- Ingfrid Breie Nyhus
- Joakim Rainer
- Ellen Ugelvik
- Christian Wallumrød
- Nils Henrik Asheim
Piano students from the Norwegian Academy of Music
- Herman Bakke Karlsen
- Barbora Cejpová
- Erlend Edland
- Joachim Engeli
- Damiën Heemskerk
- Hedda Nordhagen
Choreography
- Guro Nagelhus Schia
- Vebjørn Sundby
Dancers from Nagelhus Schia Productions
- Vilja Kwasny
- Even Eileraas
- Guro Nagelhus Schia
- Vebjørn Sundby
- Shintaro Oue
- Efua-Maria Raknerud Aikins
- Elise Nansve Mjelde
- The dance department at Rud upper secondary school
Sculptures
- Jennie Bringaker
- Erlend Hogstad
Computer programming
- Dag Egil Njaa
In collaboration with
- Norwegian Academy of Music
- The dance department at Rud upper secondary school
- Bærum Cultural School
Supported by
- Steinway
- Arts Council Norway
- Flyttefoten AS
- Sparebankstiftelsen DNB as part of Ultima + Henie Onstad: Listening to the Legacy
With thanks to
- Valeska Bertoncini
- Fondazione Isabella Scelsi
Produced by
- Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival
- Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
- Nagelhus Schia Productions
