From 14 to 19 May 2007, folk music artist Unni Løvlid and pianist Joachim Kjelsaas Kwetzinsky visited Dhaka to perform music by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. During their short stay they also rehearsed and performed folk music in fusion with Bangladeshi musicians.
21/05/2007 :: The two Norwegian musicians Unni Løvlid and Joachim Kjelsaas Kwetzinsky had great success in Dhaka when they performed for the Norwegian community after flag hoisting in the residence of Ambassdor Ingebjørg Støfring on 17 May and for a Bangladeshi and international audience in The British Council Bangladesh at a classical and folk music evening on 18 May. In a part of the 18 May Grieg performance, they were also joined by Bangladeshi musicians and actors. Several co-operating institutions in Dhaka contributed to make the musicians' stay a highly valuable one, among others a Bangladeshi folk music group called Ajob, a group from Center for Education, Creative and Performing Arts, actors and artists from Centre for Asian Theatre, and Professors and students from the Department of Theatre and Music, University of Dhaka.
Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen on 15 June 1843 and died on 4 September 1907. We are thus commemorating the centenary of his death. He was an artist whose music, words and ideas are still relevant today. He remains one of Norway’s most important ambassadors, and continues to open doors both in Norway and abroad. Although small in stature, he had a great artistic heart that beat for justice, truth and solidarity. Grieg strongly believed in the importance of music in society. He acquired first-class knowledge of the European musical tradition at the conservatory in Leipzig, which he left with excellent marks in 1862. However, he particularly wanted to express that which was genuinely Norwegian in his music. Like many composers of his time, he took an interest in collecting sounds he heard in nature and in folk music. This was an expression of a process of national awakening and identity building. Birdsong, waterfalls, rain and mountains all found a place in his compositions, and listeners are given a genuine experience of nature through his music. Grieg was a close friend of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and composed music to one of Ibsen’s plays, Peer Gynt.