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La Jolla Music Society presents the Danish String Quartet, pictured, will perform with the Danish National Girls\u2019 Choir in a women-centered music program on April 12. (La Jolla Music Society)<\/p>\nLucky San Diegans have heard the Danish String Quartet perform live during or after the foursome\u2019s 2019-21 residency with La Jolla Music Society. Those who have expect a high-quality musical experience with a twist or two.<\/p>\n
Next Sunday, the Danish String Quartet is returning to the society\u2019s Baker-Baum Concert Hall. This time the group will perform with its compatriots, the Danish National Girls\u2019 Choir. Again, expect the unexpected.<\/p>\n
\u201cA girls\u2019 choir with a string quartet is something that, on the surface, sounds quite easygoing, pleasing and quite pretty,\u201d said Charlotte Rowan, conductor of the Danish National Girls\u2019 Choir. \u201cYou have a glass of wine and a nice cheese board while you\u2019re listening to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s far from our approach,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to shock and move people in the best way classical music can. We\u2019re looking forward to hopefully surprising audiences and showing the power of these two ensembles.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Danish String Quartet and the Danish National Girls\u2019 Choir will perform at the Baker-Baum Sunday next Sunday. Half of the concert will showcase music by women composers and the other a new work by 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang, a cofounder of New York\u2019s cutting-edge music organization Bang on A Can.<\/p>\n
The quartet and girls\u2019 choir have performed joint concerts occasionally since 2014, but this is their first tour together in the U.S. The choir\u2019s 50 members are between the ages of 16 and 21. While the choir usually mixes old and contemporary chamber-music pieces and Nordic folk songs, this tour\u2019s particular repertoire was chosen to complement Lang\u2019s \u201cIn Wildness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danish String Quartet violinist Rune Tonsgaard S\u00f8rensen, also an arranger and composer of songs that will be featured next Sunday, said the tour was five years in the making.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know more about what this musical constellation can do and all the fantastic opportunities that we have together,\u201d S\u00f8rensen said. \u201cIt\u2019s very special to have 50 singers singing, right? It\u2019s just a magical experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are such an amazing group of people. Not only do they sing well, but it also looks beautiful the way they move on stage and change positions. They do most of the concert by heart and are really inspiring to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
La Jolla Music Society presents the Danish String Quartet, pictured, will perform with the Danish National Girls\u2019 Choir in a women-centered music program on April 12. (La Jolla Music Society)<\/p>\n
Thoreau, Andersen, Rosalia<\/p>\n
Both the quartet and the choir are considered national treasures in their home country, where community singing is an integral part of its culture. The popular Folk High School Songbook of Denmark (which ranks second among the world\u2019s happiest countries) was first published in 1894 and is updated every few years \u2014 often to lively debate.<\/p>\n
Conductor Rowan noted that this connection between music and community is vital to Danish culture.<\/p>\n
Originally from Liverpool, England, Rowan moved to Aarhus, Denmark, where she earned her master\u2019s in choral conducting and worked with a boys\u2019 chorus there. She relocated to Copenhagen for her \u201cdream job,\u201d conductor of Danish Radio\u2019s DR Pigekoret, known internationally as the Danish National Girls\u2019 Choir.<\/p>\n
\u201cI completely fell in love with the music scene in Denmark,\u201d said Rowan, who also fell in love with her Danish husband. \u201cI love the community Denmark\u2019s built around music. It\u2019s a unique musical landscape. The quartet and the girls\u2019 choir are perfect examples of that for me as a non-Dane. They say everything about the shared chamber music history of Denmark and the Nordic region.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m completely sold. I want to be as Danish as anyone can possibly be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like S\u00f8rensen, Rowan arranged some pieces that will be performed on Sunday, including Lang\u2019s \u201cIn Wildness.\u201d Using texts from Henry David Thoreau and Denmark\u2019s Hans Christian Andersen, Lang said he changed the voices from cranky old men to the choir\u2019s future-oriented women.<\/p>\n
La Jolla Music Society is part of a global consortium, including the girls\u2019 choir, that commissioned \u201cIn Wildness.\u201d The world premiere was in Copenhagen on March 14, and the audience was equally enthused by both halves.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that American audiences will love it as much as our lovely Danish audience did that night,\u201d Rowan said, adding that Lang\u2019s been a friend of the choir since 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid is so kind. He thought of the choir so much in writing this work. You can hear it in the way he\u2019s texturized the work and the voice divisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the first half of next Sunday\u2019s concert, the featured female composers include Denmark\u2019s Astrid Sonne, Finland\u2019s Lotta Wenn\u00e4koski, Iceland\u2019s Anna Thorvaldsdottir (who earned her PhD from UC San Diego), and American Caroline Shaw (who is a multiple Grammy Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize recipient).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have this theme of inspiring musical women from the Nordic regions and across the Atlantic,\u201d Rowan said. \u201cIf we are asked for an encore \u2013 we\u2019ve made a new arrangement of (Spanish pop star) Rosalia\u2019s \u2018Reliquia\u2019 because we wanted to celebrate an amazing current musical voice. We\u2019re hoping that will be a boost at the end of a wonderful evening for the people who are joining us.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the first time in San Diego for Rowan and the choir, but because of the quartet\u2019s three-year residency, they feel comfortable in La Jolla.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful little spot in the world,\u201d S\u00f8rensen said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice having the opportunity to go back to a place where, you know the good restaurants and the people working behind the stage. It means that we\u2019re in good company, so that we can perform better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danish String Quartet with the Danish National Girls\u2019 Choir<\/p>\n
When: 3 p.m. Next Sunday, April 12<\/p>\n
Where: Baker-Baum Concert Hall, Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, 7600 Fay Avenue, La Jolla<\/p>\n
Tickets: $65-$98<\/p>\n
Phone: 858-459-3728<\/p>\n