As American’s begin to think about how to work-off all that turkey and those mashed potatoes, audiences in South Africa are being treated to the music of BCE friend, Thomas Jennefelt. The programs are presented by the Drakensberg Boys’ Choir (aka The Drakies), one of the world’s premiere boy choirs. They’ll be presenting Jennefelt’s Hosianna [...]

Yesterday in NB, we published audio clips from a telephone conversation between BCE’s music director, Miguel Felipe, and Thomas Jennefelt, the composer of the Villarosa Sequences which the Boston Choral Ensemble will perform during the weekend. In the last post, they discussed Mr. Jennefelt’s musical beginnings and his thoughts on his work. Today, they chat about [...]

With only days before BCE offers Villarosa its first complete performance outside Sweden, NB is pleased to publish a two-part interview with the composer, Mr. Thomas Jennefelt. BCE’s music director, Miguel Felipe, chatted with Mr. Jennefelt from his home in Sweden. Their conversation is presented below. In today’s excerpts they discuss Mr. Jennfelt’s musical background [...]

NB’s seven-week series culminates this week with samples from the final movements of Thomas Jennefelt’s Villarosa Sequences: “Vinamintra elitavi”. And, later this week BCE will present a live performance of the entire work representing the first complete performance outside Sweden. Movement seven, “Vinamintra elitavi”, is the conclusion of the arch of movements. Like movements one, [...]

As BCE’s enters the final days before the live Villarosa concerts next weekend, the movement-by-movement series continues to movement #6, “Virita criosa”. As the large arch-form of the work approaches its close,“Virita criosa” can be seen as a structural pair to #2, “Saoveri indamflavi”. Just as “Saoveri” was for men, “Virita criosa” is for women’s [...]

NB’s happy to bring you a little diversion today: a choral work by Thomas Jennefelt presented here in video. The performance is from the 10th International Chamber Choir Competition Marktoberdorf and is performed by the Collegium Vocale conducted by Thomas Caplin of Norway. The work, O Domine, is from 1983 and is for mixed voices [...]

Last week, NB explored the fourth of the seven Villarosa Sequences movements. The mathematician in you may notice that #4 was the center of the work. And so  with movement #5, “Claviante brilioso”, we begin to sense the complete shape and scale of the whole work. As in movements #1 and #3, movement “Claviante brilioso” [...]

Today NB introduces “Strimoni volio” the fourth of the seven Villarosa Sequences movements. “Strimoni volio” was written in 2001 for Swedish soprano Jeanette Köhn. Of the seven movements, this was the last to be composed. Below is an excerpt from the movement recorded by the Ms. Köhn herself; it comes from the same recording as the other [...]

One of the most exciting aspects of NB is our ability to connect with composers and performers from around the world without any regard for their distance from our Boston-based concerts. Today, in a first, we are able to bring you a post directly from Mr. Thomas Jennefelt. Indeed, this is the first in a [...]

NB continues our weekly installments of movements from the Villarosa Sequences. This week, we move on to the third movement: “Villarosa sarialdi.” As in the first week, this movement is scored for a mixed-voice choir. This is the third in the first set of three, all of which were commissioned simultaneously by the choirs in Helsinki, [...]