The nurseries nourish the region's cultural life

Giving Norrbotten's youth the opportunity to grow in their musical development is one of Norrbotten Music's most important missions. During the spring, audiences can experience the results when the choir Arctic Light puts on the performance Existence in close collaboration with the Gothenburg Opera Youth Choir in Piteå, while the Norrbotten Youth Symphony Orchestra meets young musicians from Stockholm and Västra Götaland in a grand concert.

Actually, it shouldn't have been possible. Bringing together forty or so young singers living more than 160 miles apart on one stage and also having them set the tone and content through joint exercises and practical work sounds difficult enough. If you add to this a pandemic that prevented meetings in one place, the whole thing sounds even more difficult, if possible.

Yet they are now standing there on stage – Norrbottensmusiken's Arctic Light and the Gothenburg Opera's Youth Choir to jointly perform their stage performance. ExistenceThere will be two concerts, one in Gothenburg and one in Piteå on June 5th.

The driving forces behind the project are the choirmaster and Arctic Light's artistic director Susanna Lindmark, together with her colleague Ida Rosén Hamrå, who leads the Gothenburg Opera's Youth Choir.

Rehearsal weekend for the choir concert Existens, conductor Susanna Lindmark. Photo: Maria Fäldt.

External funders

During the work on Existens, Arctic Light's singers, who all come from different places in Norrbotten, have had the door to the world of opera opened ajar. This was also one of the starting points for the project, which was made possible not least with the support of the fundraising foundation Signatur and a number of other external funders who truly believed in this meeting between the young people.

Under the guidance of the choir directors, director Kjell Peder Johansson and composer John Barber and librettist Hazel Gould, the young people themselves have been able to contribute both content and musical ideas. Due to the pandemic, the work had to move out of the physical rooms and into the digital ones where the young people have discussed life issues that have been included in the performance.

Healthy exploration

What is a voice? Is there room for songs? Does it mean anything that we have a will, a dream, are just a few examples of the questions raised in the performance to fantastic music by British composer John Barber and Susanna Lindmark.  

Exploring questions about the future in a world like ours as a young person can of course be difficult at times. But as one of the singers expressed in an interview after a rehearsal in Piteå: “I think this is a very healthy way to explore these heavy questions and to create something beautiful out of it instead of sadness or anxiety or anything like that.”

Here you can watch a film about the rehearsal work: Existence - What does it mean to be human? 

An orchestral troika of young people

The Norrbotten Youth Symphony Orchestra (NUS) celebrated its 30th anniversary last year and is one of the country's leading youth symphony orchestras. Under the working name Trojkan, NUS, Västra Götaland Youth Symphony Orchestra and Stockholm Youth Symphony Orchestra have been collaborating for several years and regularly meet for joint rehearsals and concerts. This year, the Norrbotten Youth Symphony Orchestra is hosting the event, and after the rehearsals in Piteå, all three orchestras, which are united here in one large symphony orchestra, will give a concert in Sara Kulturhus on May 28.

This time the Troika is led by the young, acclaimed conductor Emil Eliasson, born and raised in Skellefteå. He himself is an example of the importance of nurseries like this and has played in all three orchestras during his younger years.

The Norrbotten Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Västra Götaland Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Stockholm Youth Symphony Orchestra have been collaborating under the working name Trojkan for several years. Photo: Åsa Danell.

A good project

In an interview for Norrbottensmusiken's website, Emil Eliasson, who, in addition to his music, also played football and hockey at home in Skellefteå, spoke about the importance of sharing his interest in music with other young people in more professional ways:

"Sitting at home in the chamber and practicing was of course necessary, but you also need to be able to talk to others about what you are doing. Others who are interested. That is why it is important to get outside your own circle, your own school, your own city and meet people with other backgrounds and not least other teachers. It is incredibly enriching," says Emil Eliasson.

"Then the evenings after rehearsals are almost as important. Having fun together, meeting new people, all that kind of thing. This is a good project, we need more of them."

Read the interview with Emil Eliasson: From youth symphonist to conductor

Want to know more?

Please contact Anna Jirstrand Sandlund, County Music Director, if you have any questions.
anna.jirstrand-sandlund@norrbotten.se

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