Ellen Ugelvik: The Soloist in the Contemporary Piano Concerti

Field of study: Artistic Research (Piano)

Background

The project grew out of a need to improve the ability to tackle challenges Ugelvik had faced playing contemporary piano concerti. The embodying of new aesthetics is a great challenge in premieres of new works. While the soloist has great potential for expressing personal artistic ideas within a large-scale concert-hall environment, the classical pianist education just does not cover all challenges of performing brand new concerti. The new music suffers. The general lack of contemporary music in educational repertoires has consequences for how the field of classical music develops, what kind of music we value, how we work and what kind of music we play and listen to in a musical society.

Ugelvik explores the potential of her role and investigates how she could behave and play to help to improve the sounding result of new piano concerti.

Research Question

She created this project with the overarching research question:

“Which abilities do I need to develop further, and to enable a progressive soloist role when faced with challenges in entirely new music, and what are the extended effects of such an expanded role awareness?”

As the project moved forward, this progressive role awareness, she discovered, was useful by giving greater flexibility and confidence about the massive collective apparatus surrounding the new piano concerti.

Material

The project is based around five new piano concerti she has premiered at national and international venues:

Diamond Dust by D. Fujikura, Konsertstykke i tre deler by M. Hegdal, at the tips of my fingers / on the tip of my tongue by B.L. Thorsen, Wowen Fingerprints by T.B. Ulvo and Theory of the Subject by T. Reinholdtsen.

Findings

Through the evolution of these works, Ugelvik examines the role of the soloist in all the processes of musical creation, from initialization to realisation in performance. The research material provides insights into how new music is dealt with in the standard classical music world. She provides rare awareness of the role of the soloist and suggest several improvements of how we lay the foundations for premiering new music. A central outcome of the project is a ‘toolbox’ of proposed techniques and approaches for pianists encountering new works. The toolbox, she argues, is also valuable when applied to older music and to how we approach any musical situation on a general level.

Documentation

Full title: The soloist in the Contemporary Piano Concerti

Artistic results

01. The artistic presentation in Sentralen, 15 September 2016: Theory of the Subjectby Trond Reinholdtsen

02. Video presentations of the following concerts:

• Diamond Dust (2013) by Dai Fujikura
• Konsertstykke i tre deler (2015) by Magne Hegdal
• at the tips of my fingers/on the tip of my tongue (2015) by Bente Leiknes

03. Full scores of the following concerts:

• Diamond Dust (2013) by Dai Fujikura
• Konsertstykke i tre deler (2015) by Magne Hegdal
• at the tips of my fingers/on the tip of my tongue (2015) by Bente Leiknes
• Woven fingerprints (2015) by Therese Birkelund Ulvo
• Theory of the Subject (2016) by Trond Reinholdtsen

04. The CDs/LPs:

• Lyriske stykker (2013) by Christian Blom/Ellen Ugelvik
• Plastic Waves (2013) by Øyvind Torvund
• Ellen Ugelvik plays Magne Hegdal and Anton Reicha (2016)

Written documentation

Ugelvik's critical reflection is titled "The role of the Soloist".

Artistic results and reflections are available in the Research Catalogue