There is a tradition of presenting an award to a musician and a choir singer at the Friends” general meeting. It is also traditional for the award recipients to ”sign off" with a piece of music and a song respectively. Last year, as you know, there was no general meeting due to the Corona restrictions and therefore no awards and music.
But thanks to the loyal members who paid their membership fees during the lockdown, this year there was a whole rain of prizes and musical performances on a scale hardly ever seen before.
Even before the winners were announced, 4Corners took to the stage in DR-Byen's Studio 2. The four members of the quartet are Tine Rudloff and Sarah McClelland on violin, Katrine Reinhold Bundgaard on viola and Richard Krug on cello. They all play in the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
They played three pieces that Tine Rudlolff had been inspired by through her annual visits to Sønderho on Fanø since childhood, where she played together with the local musicians. It was a festive musical start to the award ceremony.
It's worth mentioning here that award winners are usually told that they have a special reason for attending. Partly so that they can be present and partly so that they can practise the musical performance. This year, Sarah McClelland was notified that she would be playing with 4Corners, but she had not been told that she would also receive one of the two awards for members of the Symphony Orchestra.
Traditionally, it is the chairman of the orchestra association who motivates the award AND many words of praise are said before the name is revealed. When Sarah McClelland realised towards the end of bassoonist Dorte Bennike's speech that she was also the award winner, she was visibly surprised and moved by the honour, which was justified with these words:
- Our orchestra consists of many nationalities. Just as Danish musicians go abroad, foreign musicians come to Denmark. And fortunately, because our colleagues with foreign backgrounds not only strengthen our level, they also contribute to an important outlook," said Dorte Bennike and continued:
- Sarah McClelland is one of those colleagues. She doesn't just come from abroad - she comes from the country that is, if anything, furthest from Denmark; New Zealand. And she is a textbook example of a foreign musician who has raised not only our artistic level, but also our ability to take care of our colleagues.
- Many of our colleagues have come to Denmark when they were very young, with no family travelling with them, no network and no knowledge of the Danish system. They encounter a language that is difficult to learn, a system that on the surface appears logical and orderly, but which turns out not always to be so. And a culture that may be friendly, but is not easy to assimilate into.
- Sarah, who made the trip decades ago, is the one in the orchestra who, if anyone, has thrown herself into helping our new foreign colleagues in particular to feel comfortable in Denmark and in the orchestra.
- She has spent time and effort creating an introduction for those who have just arrived in the country. She is ready with care and good advice when they wonder about culture or systems - and she educates the rest of us - in such a friendly way that we hardly realise it - when we become too familiar or don't understand the challenges of everything we think is easy because we have grown up in it.
The other musician, violinist Tine Rudloff, received these words from the orchestra chairman:
- Tine is the one who organises the 1st violin team for the various productions, and she does it not only skilfully, but also with great care for her colleagues both as a group and as individuals. -
- When things are lagging or in need of intervention, Tine is the one to step in. This applies, for example, to the concert clothing in the orchestra, where we reached a stage of ”gala fleece” and ”concert boots”. Something had to be done and the person who did it was, once again, Tine, who immediately initiated a clothing selection and a framework for the clothing so that the orchestra was a lot more suitable for TV. Tine is a much-loved colleague and a social dynamo - and it is with great pride that she receives the Friends' Association's scholarship.
The vocal ensemble chose soprano Malene Nordtorp as this year's award winner. In addition to the award, she received a bouquet of flowers and these words from the choir association's chairman, tenor Emil Lykke
- When singing in the Vocal Ensemble, there are certain skills you need to have in order to function optimally.
For example, you need to be able to be both a soloist and an ensemble singer, which are two very different disciplines that only very few people can master. And only very few people master it like Malene.
She can dance solo on the notes above high C, and the next moment sing four-part patriotic songs, sing a musical duet, and the next day sing stylish baroque.
It was the chairman, Jakob K. Pedersen, who motivated the award to a member of the large choir, KoncertKoret. The recipient was alto singer Aleksandra Vagner Pedersen.
The last time the audience met Aleksandra Vagner Pedersen, it was as an ogre in Grieg's ”In the Hall of the Dovregubben” from Peer Gynt and not least as an expert vocal coach in the audience's rehearsal of ”The Prisoner Choir” from Verdi's opera ”Nabucco”.
- In recent years, Aleksandra has also been chairman of the DR Ensembles Chamber Music Association, where she puts a lot of voluntary work into the association's activities - both as a concert organiser, contributing singer and taking responsibility for all the practical details of running the concerts, said Jakob K. Pedersen and continued
- Aleksandra is in every way an admirable role model for her colleagues, a firebrand and an excellent musician, and she is a great asset to DR KoncertKoret and to music in DR.
The two singers had prepared an extensive programme on the theme of love and nature, ranging from Peter Heise's ”The Philosophy of Love” and Jeppe Aakjær's ”In the deep, quiet peace of the forest” to Léo Delibe's famous flower duet from the opera Lakmé and ”Dance Song”, immortalised by Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann.
May I be allowed to emphasise the musicians and singers' thanks to the Friends:
- Not that it was nice to get a little extra for Christmas presents. No, it was the joy of having their artistic and daily work recognised that delighted the award recipients.
MOGENS RUBINSTEIN