(birds chirping) - Welcome to Nordic Soundscapes.

Tonight's concert is part of a two-week festival exploring historic and contemporary music by composers representing each of the Nordic countries: Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark.

I like to think that we are sending you a set of musical postcards from each of these very distinct Nordic places and artistic voices.

In Denmark, we have this word called hygge.

And hygge I can best describe actually as a cozy and a comfortable moment in the everyday life.

All the senses are stimulated and you just relax.

(speaking in foreign language) Have a wonderful evening.

Enjoy the concert.

(audience applauding) ("Arietta") ("Spring Dance") ("Solitary Traveler") ("Butterfly") ("Bell Ringing") ("Remembrances") (audience applauding) - A magnificent performance of Ørjan Matre's "Lyric Pieces."

Good evening everyone, and welcome to "This Is Minnesota Orchestra."

I'm your host, Ariana Kim.

Taken after Edvard Grieg's piano works by the same title, I love how Matre combines minimalist techniques and electronic delay effects to bring a new sense of identity to the piece.

Part of our Nordic Soundscapes festival, tonight's concert celebrates music from Scandinavia with Grieg's venerated "Peer Gynt" as our musical anchor.

From the illustrative magic coming from the use of chimes and celeste to the dramatic virtuosity and warmth in the Nielsen "Violin Concerto," we invite you to experience a gathering, that hygge that is unmistakably Nordic.

Hugo Alfvén's "The Mountain King Suite" tells the story of a Norse smith where a shepherdess is abducted by the Mountain King only to be eventually saved by her true love.

Its cinematic breadth pays homage to the original ballet pantomime.

In Grieg's "Peer Gynt," originally written as incidental music for Ibsen's famed play, we hear melodies that have since become some of the most widely used quotes in pop culture, advertising, films, and even video games across the globe.

I imagine that some of us might even have an ah-ha moment tonight saying to ourselves, oh, that's where that came from.

And now Carl Nielsen's "Violin Concerto."

In 1912, Nielsen conducted its premier with the Royal Danish orchestra, where, fun fact, our music director, Thomas Søndergård, was also a member.

Thomas joined the Royal Danish Orchestra as timpanist in 1992.

Our soloist this evening, Swedish Norwegian violinist, Johan Dalene, makes his Minnesota Orchestra debut performing Nielsen's "Concerto."

In just a moment, we'll welcome concert master Erin Keefe, music director maestro Søndergård, Johan Dalene, and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Please enjoy.

(audience applauding) (soft classical music) (audience applauding) ("Praeludium") (audience applauding) ("Poco Adagio") (audience applauding) (audience cheering) A stunning performance of the Nielsen "Violin Concerto" by Swedish Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene, winner of the 2019 Carl Nielsen competition.

His command of those pyrotechnics alongside the patience he has as a lyricist is so admirable.

Such virtuosity and warmth combined.

Dalene began the violin at age four and made his debut as orchestral soloist just three years later.

He has since recorded the concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and will actually return to the United States for chamber music performances later this season.

Carl Nielsen wrote his violin concerto in 1911 during the middle of his career mirroring Igor Stravinsky in his foray into midlife neoclassicism.

Unusual in its form with only two movements, the first is an epic musical journey that could stand on its own, as we saw by that warm applause, while a second is almost a slow movement and finale combined.

He invites the orchestra and soloist to play chamber music together in the adaggio, which gives way to a playful scherzo to conclude the work.

Nielsen approached the pressures of 20th century compositional innovation with caution.

Though his voice is distinct and thoughtful, he was careful not to be pressured into innovating without purpose or integrity, writing in a 1925 essay, "Nothing in all art is as painful as unsuccessful originality."

Minnesota Orchestra, principal clarinet, Gabriel Campos Zamora, performed Carl Nielsen's "Clarinet Concerto" earlier in our festival.

Gaby joined the orchestra in 2016, and we'd love to share a little bit more about his story and journey.

(soft music) - The clarinet is a very versatile instrument in terms of its range, and it's quite old.

You start seeing the clarinet as early as Haydn.

And the sound glues really well with different sections of the orchestra.

It plays beautifully well with the strings.

(lively classical music) It's an incredibly soloistic instrument.

It can be very virtuosic and also lyrical, which is probably why a lot of amazing composers picked the clarinet to be the main voice of so many of their solos.

It's a prominent voice in the woodwind section for sure.

My name is Gabriel Campos Zamora, and I'm the principal clarinet of the Minnesota Orchestra.

I was born in San Jose, Costa Rica.

We grew up there until I was about 10.

At that point, we moved to the province of Heredia to a small town named La Asunción de Belén.

My parents, they were jazz musicians.

They had a group called the "Jazz Garbo."

My father was the singer of the group, and my father was the drummer.

(soft music) The music system is a little bit different in Costa Rica.

If you want to study music, which my parents wanted me to study formally, you have to enroll in an after-hours program.

So I studied at the conservatory since I was seven.

Eventually I would start studying with the beloved José Manuel Ugalde Quirós, but we had a nickname for him, which was Cheche.

And he was the third and base clarinet of the National Symphony.

Then tragedy struck.

He was murdered.

He was shot on the street, presumably because the assailants wanted to take away his clarinet bag.

And that was a traumatic experience for me personally, but also for the musical community because he was a really well-respected and loved colleague.

I remember they had a really powerful concert in his memory.

It became clear to me that I wanted to pursue clarinet in a more serious way.

Lots of students had attended the Interlochen Arts Academy as a way to come to the United States, and I figured that that would be a way to come to study with a teacher named Nathan Williams.

One of the loveliest things was support for international students.

I was very lucky to have a scholarship which helped me get my first set of instruments.

Beyond that, I had an incredible group of people, host families, individuals who believed in my talent, and that was very, very special, very powerful.

I went to study at the Colburn School in LA with Professor Yehuda Gilad, who was my teacher and mentor for the next four years.

I ended up at a fellowship in New York City, a Carnegie Hall program.

And that was a steep learning curve, you know, being a student in a small conservatory to all of a sudden being a freelancer in New York City of all places.

And then in 2016 I came to audition for the Minnesota Orchestra.

So after completing my trial weeks with the Minnesota Orchestra, I was offered the position of principal clarinet.

I was happy to take the challenge and I was offered a lot of positive criticism that helped me develop in the role that I have today.

(soft classical music) We do have a rather resonant and large space.

The criticism had to do with finding ways to really fill the hall with sound, particularly during solos.

And that is something that takes time, that takes a little bit of experimenting.

You have to experiment with instruments, with your reeds, with how you project, with how you produce sound.

And it's not done overnight, for sure.

(soft classical music) I couldn't ask for a better section.

They're people you can trust, that you can talk to.

They're supportive.

They're also very, very much down to earth.

- I came to Minnesota on a one-year contract in the '21-'22 season.

And Gaby was actually one of the first friends I made here in the orchestra.

It's because we had so much in common.

Not only the music, not only working in the same place, but our love of dogs, our love of food and travel, and our shared Latin American heritage.

My family's from Guatemala.

- We got married on a Saturday, June 29th of 2024.

Newlyweds.

- Yes.

And when we decided that we were going to get married, I was like, okay, well, you know, this is it.

Like, if I want to settle down here, if I'm planning on settling down here, and, you know, making a life, I want to be able to contribute in a substantial way.

And it was just a fortunate timing that there was an audition coming up around the same time.

And actually, I found out that I got the job and that I'd passed my trial the same week that we got married.

- You know, this feeling of sprouting roots somewhere is still relatively new to me.

And I wonder if that has to do with the fact that I am an immigrant.

I certainly miss home in that way.

I miss the food.

I miss my language.

But I'm also very happy here.

Minneapolis is a fantastic place to live.

And I want to retain my language and my customs and my ties to my home country while also developing a life in the country that I currently live in.

(upbeat orchestral music) I'm not an athlete by any stretch of the imagination, but I do play soccer with some pretty good players.

And the way I improve my moves on the soccer pitch is by applying some music techniques as far as practicing is concerned.

Why I think it's so important to have challenging activities outside of music is to be reminded that there's always room to grow and to be challenged in your own music.

So in this team, sometimes we joke that we are a UN delegation because we have guys from all over the world.

I'm from Costa Rica.

- I am from Spain.

- Nigeria.

- I'm from Argentina.

- I'm from Chicago.

(laughs) - Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

- [All] All of us!

(soft music) - Dog training is a humbling experience also.

And it teaches you that there's always more to learn.

You can't really overwhelm them with repetition.

Instead, you have to really be careful about how much you work.

Praise them and reward when your puppy does what you want them to do, even if it's a simple task.

I've learned that sometimes in my playing, I need to apply the same sort of mentality.

That instead of getting frustrated, sometimes the best thing to do is put it away for a few hours, go do something else.

And then come back to it later, I often find that when I do that, it actually works better when you come back.

(soft music) For me as a person, it's really important that I continue to challenge myself, to grow, so I can continue to be a better colleague, a better husband, to be a better human being, to be a better musician.

- Gaby is passionate about teaching the clarinet and has been on the faculty of a number of schools, including the Interlochen Arts Camp, an institution that has been so meaningful to Gaby since he was a teen.

I also personally loved to learn how he figured out how to fill that Minnesota Orchestra concert hall with his sound.

We've been transported this evening to Nordic countries, to Costa Rica with Gaby, and now let's see what other places, sounds and experiences are considered home in winter.

- I grew up in Sydney, Australia, and winter down under is definitely not as cold as it is here, but it's still not warm.

I wouldn't say I necessarily miss the winters of Australia, I really do miss the sounds of nature, the bird calls in particular, are very distinct and unique to Australia and it's a little raucous and noisy, but I love it.

I love the sulphur-crested cockatoo, I also love the pink and grey galah and I love rainbow lorikeets.

And actually kookaburras are the ones with the craziest, most wild kind of call.

People think that they're monkeys, but it's a bird and it's a loud one.

(bird calling) - One of my favorite places on earth is a little place on the beach of Malmö in Sweden.

In Øresund, as the sea is called there, there's a historical place where there are three different saunas, one very strong, a middle one, and a weak one, not so one.

And here is the place where I find that I relax the most.

When you come out of the sauna, dip into the sea very quick, the endorphins in the brains goes berserk.

And that's what gives the peace to the soul.

Look at the moon and stay as long as you can.

(water splashing) When it really gets cold, there is ice on the sea and that's when, believe it or not, that I love to find that hole after the sauna and dip into the cold sea.

That is really what I look most forward to when it gets cold.

- I love January after the busy holiday season and cozy up and listen to piano music, Chopin in particular, all his waltzes, all his mazurkas, the two concertos, that is my winter music.

I grew up in Hawaii where the waves are amazing in the winter, so my winter tradition is to go surfing.

I don't know if I surf this way, I kind of do.

No, I do it this way.

(laughs) - During the winter in Costa Rica, we don't do winter because we don't have winter.

We have the wet season, which is most of the year, and then we have the winter, which is the dry season.

And what we do in Costa Rica is we pack up and we go to the beach.

I would say that Costa Rica is probably most known for its biodiversity.

In the winter, when I'm home anyway, I do try to make time to go visit so many of these biological reserves and national parks because it's just a beautiful part of the world.

I have seen all sorts of snakes in the wild, poisonous ones, big spiders, sloths, different types of monkeys.

So when you're hiking in the rainforest, you have to be really careful not to step outside the path because you never know what you're gonna step on.

Like a coral snake and not the fake kind.

I'm not afraid of snakes, not yet anyway.

- So many of our Minnesota orchestra musicians love to enjoy our home state winter traditions.

Pond hockey, fat tire biking, and Nordic skiing.

I have yet to find out whether or not any of our musicians go skijoring.

Apparently that's where you put a harness on your pup, strap on your skis, and the dog takes you on a great ride.

It was lovely to escape to those other wonderful places around the globe, including that Swedish cold plunge that Thomas Søndergård described.

The musicians are now taking the stage to conclude tonight's concert and our Nordic Soundscapes festival with a trip to the land of dance and pantomime in the Minnesota Orchestra premiere of Alfvén's "The Mountain King Suite," followed by selections from "Peer Gynt."

Keep an ear out for the final movement, which may bring back childhood video game memories for many of us.

Of this last piece on our program tonight, Grieg was hesitant in agreeing to compose the incidental music for Ibsen's play, writing to a friend that the play's content was a terribly unmanageable subject.

Although the score took him longer than expected, the end result was a masterpiece that has since become part of the standard symphonic literature.

Grieg's imagination in capturing the essence of the play, which tells the highly complex story of Pierre, at once a romantic and a scoundrel, who grapples with egotism and honesty at the intersection of reality and surreality, is exhibited in his use of percussion and intricate motivic development.

In Pierre, we meet a conflicted soul who often seems to be cut from the devil's cloth, yet is also someone who is vulnerable and loving, seeking only that from others.

Grieg brings this dichotomous experience to the concert stage, asking our ears to paint vivid scenes in our minds through his writing that leaps off the page, brought to life by the orchestra.

In a moment, we'll welcome back to the stage maestro Søndergård and the Minnesota Orchestra for the conclusion of tonight's performance.

Signing off from Orchestra Hall, I'm Ariana Kim for "This Is Minnesota Orchestra."

Please enjoy the second half of the program and thank you so much for joining us tonight.

(soft orchestral music) (audience applauding) ("Invocation") ("Summer Rain") ("Dance of the Shepherd Girl") (audience applauding) (audience applauding) ("Morning Mood") ("Ase's Death") ("Anitra's Dance") ("In the Hall of the Mountain King") (audience cheering)