Magnar Åm: Gratia for harp and strings (Willy Postma, harp)
Magnar Åm: Gratia, for harp and strings Kristiansand Chamber Orchestra Willy Postma, harp The work was commissioned by Willy Postma and first performed with her as a soloist at the Sixth World Harp Congress in Tacoma, USA, 1996. Magnar Åm (1952) was born in Trondheim. He received his education as an organist at the Bergen Conservatory of Music, and studied composition with Ketil Hvoslef in Bergen as well as with Ingvar Lidholm at the National College of Music in Stockholm. Åm had his debut as an organist in 1971, and his breakthrough as a composer came with the work Prayer (1972) for strings, choir and soprano soloists. He is now a full-time composer and lives in Volda (Western Norway), where he every autumn also teaches "Intuitive composition/improvisation and music filosophy" at Volda University College. This is a 15-points subject which can either be a part of a BA at Volda University College or be taken as an independent further education course. Åm receives the State Guaranteed Income for Artists. He writes frequently in a polyphonic, freely dissonant or free-tonal style with a condensed expressive, yet ascetic introspective tone language - where melodic and experimental work coexist, and where the movements of the musical elements in the concrete, three-dimensional room play an increasingly important role. In recent years, in his search for a more ideal mediation of musical energy, he has often allowed the works to contain elements that exceed the conventional rituals of the concert hall. "Time and space structured as music is a formidable tool for one who seeks to make conscious his deepest essence and meaning, whether one creates, performs, or listens. But the pleasure of allowing things become habit is a tempting veil and a hindrance for all searching, also here. This is why I undertake the task of delving into old ways of mediating music quite frequently - partly to awaken, partly to develop new rituals that can better strengthen the deeper functions of music." / Åm / Harpist Willy Postma was born in Amsterdam. After attending Schools in Rotterdam, Paris and New York, she came to Noway at an early age and has been affiliated with the Trondhein Symphony Orchestra since 1964. Prizewinner of the International Harp Competition in Israel in 1970 Postma has had an all-round career as soloist, chamber-music performer and teacher. Postma has recorded several CD albums and has been a frequent guest on television and radio programmes. In 1980 she started the Nordic countries' first harp class in Trondheim, a class she still conducts. Since 1991 she has been a teacher at the Norwegian State Academy of Music and since 1992 also at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. Information, pictures and photos were taken from the internet.
