30 year anniversary with the harp! A tour program for harp, electronics and video. A personal program where Roedland presents the harp and life as a harpist. Several of the works were commissioned by Roedland. This concert is unconventional, not only in the use of harp, but also in utilizing the room and by applying multimedia.
About the program:
The concert is designed for small and dark concert halls. In the work by Steen-Andersen a video will be projected on the harp, that will be prepared with paper in between the strings. The composition presents the history of the harp, projecting images of famous harpists on Roedland herself, while she is performing. The entire harp is transformed into an angel wing connected to Roedland’s back while she is ceremoniously playing her toy harp (see video). In Heritage by Hellstenius there is also video, but on a separate video screen. The work is a biographical work, focusing on the performer. In this piece, Roedland speaks while playing, 
about her family stories, her ancestors and even about what it’s like being a harpist. The work creates an intimate atmosphere. In Murray Schafer’s The Crown of Ariadne the myth about Ariadne, Thesevs and the Minotaur is told through Ariandne’s perspective. The harpist takes the role as Ariadne. In addition to a virtuosic harp part, the harpist also plays on percussion placed around the harp; cymbals, crotales, woodblocks, bells, bell tree, bongos and triangles. Cities Change the Songs of Birds by Jakob Ter Veldhuis is a moving piece for harp and a field recording of a woman and her daughter in New York. The work focus on two people who find themselves in a desperate situation, where criminality and drug abuse is a part of their daily life. The music emphasizes the strong emotional content of the recording. The compositions by Dodd, Fongaard, Birtwistle and Saariaho are all relatively quiet works for harp and electronics. Birtwistle, Fongaard and Saariaho are central composers of our time. Rose Dodd is composing a new work for harp and electronics that will be completed in 2017. Dodd is a composer, writer and musicologist from the UK, with a PhD from Huddersfield University.
Artists:
Sunniva Roedland, harp
Cato Langnes, sound design
Program:
Simon Steen-Andersen: History of My Instrument, for harp, pick-up and video (2011)
Henrik Hellstenius: Heritage, for harp, harpist and video (2011/12)
R.Murray Schafer: The Crown of Ariadne, for harp solo with percussion (1979)
Jakob Ter Veldhuis: Cities Change the Songs of Birds, for harp and boombox (2008)
B.Fongaard: Concerto for harp and tape (1976)/*
H.Birtwistle: Crowd for solo harp (2005)/ *
Rose Dodd: New composition for harp and electronics (2017) /*
Kaija Saariaho: Fall, for harp and electronics*
*These works will alternate in the concerts
