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The outastanding sporano and superior art-warrior Pille Lill







One and a half hour north of Tallin lies this manor which I think should be called for a castle! A true spa treatment for the eyes! Some good Estonien friends of mine showed up at the concert to my surprise, and also some great people from yesterday came for the second time. I feel so honored to perform for so many wonderful persons here in Estonia. Unfortunately the manor didn´t have a grand piano (yet), but with the help of a skillfull pianotuner from Tallin I did the best I could trying to make magic with the musical keys of the house. What great energy that manor gave me! And this manor will be encluded as the first collaborating manor to Café de Concert´s Nordic Chambermusic Center in Norway (Elingaard, Fredrikstad), this beeing concluded after a wonderful chat with the lady of the house after the concert. I will actually be returning to this wonderful place this July for inspiration and recreation. So should the rest of the world...

Today is my day off here in Tallin. The weather is a bit grey, but one must not forget that grey is also a nice color produced by the artistic rainbow! I´ll be doing a long work-out before hitting the sauna and jacuzzi, then strolling around this magical old town and meeting up with friends at the opera later to hear soprano Pille Lill sing Prokofiev! Looking very much forward to that!!

It was a magnificant evening, arranged and hosted by Bækkelund´s wonderful Brita Rosenberg, which I will never forget. I performed one of my solo pieces for piano, the first movement of Beethoven´s Spring sonata for violin and piano (with Bjarne Magnus Jensen), 1st movement of Mozart´s piano concerto nr. 11 and finished off with Gershwin´s Rhapsody in Blue. The two last pieces with the supercool Fredrikstad Chamber Orchestra. Bækkelund would have been 80 years yesterday, and it was a true honor for me to recieve his prize on his birthday. Kjell Bækkelund, one of the finest artists we have ever had in Norway! The prize was 100.000 NOK (approx 16.000 USD) - more than enough to finance my solo debut in Carnegie Hall in New York on October 10th this year! Brita, you have inspired me more than you can imagine! I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and can´t wait to see you in Carnegie Hall!!

Now it´s off to Estonia for a solo tour with my newest compositions for piano solo - plane leaving in a couple of hours, got to get moving:)

The atmosphere was electric, the stories from the book "Momo", told by the wonderful drama-student Iselin Shumba, was dazzeling and the music simply flew out of our instruments. Bjarne Magnus Jensen and I started off with the funky Norwegian dance nr. 1 by Halvorsen. Then I played my Harlekin-variations (over Bach´s Goldberg Variations), then came Mozart´s 1st movement from his violinsonata KV 333, I played his famous solo sonata in B flat major (1st movement) and after Bjarne amazed the crowd with Ole Bull´s Mountain Visit we finished off with Svendsen´s Romance and Beethoven´s Spring sonata
(1st movement). Man, that was a blast! Can´t wait to invite everybody to the next house-concert at Casa del Musica;)
Great having you here, my dearest friends!!

The life of a musician is actually much more exhausting than what I believe most people think in the first place. One aspect is of course all of the travelling and physical effect it has on the body, and no less when having to perform at the same time. But what I would like to emphasise is the amount of strength needed to play an entire concert, totally focused, and constantly having to flow over with enegry at the same time as produceing energy. In my mind it is really as hard as any other sport. Which brings me over to my very point - both musicians and others should see the sport in music, and the music in sports. In other words see the athletism in art, and the art in athletism. I am an athelete - that´s why I wear Nike!