melangell

AGNETHE CHRISTENSEN, contralto Melangell - TEIT KANSTRUP, baritone Prince of Brochwell - BENTE VIST, soprano - JAKOB SKJOLDBORG, tenor - KUNO KJÆRBYE, violin - IDA BACH JENSEN, contrabass - ANDERS HVIDBERG-HANSEN, percussion - HANNE TOFTE JESPERSEN, piano, alto
recital: LAURALEE NICOLE (UK/Wales); in Iceland: María Ellingsen; in DK: María Ellingsen or Annika Hoydal

MIKE HARRIS (UK) author - HANNE TOFTE JESPERSEN (DK) composer - Alison Michell (UK/DK) visual artist

The Testimony of Melangell is a magical story – a journey in music into ancient Celtic mythology - with voices, violin, contrabass, percussion and piano, staged in a magical clearing of glass, sand, moss, stones, water, lights and paintings.

In the circular setting, the audience forms an integral part of the performance.
4 singers and 4 instrumentalists bring this legend from 500 AD alive - about how the pilgrim Melangell settled as a hermit and mystic in a lonely situated valley in the highlands of Northern Wales - and created peace around her...

Listen to the music

Bent-Erik Rasmussen,
Secretary General at
Franz Schubert Society Denmark
says about Hanne Tofte Jespersen:

”An extraordinary composer of her very own right with a belief and knowledge in the human voice - and a sense of musical storytelling which is quite unique – using a broad network of musical roots condensed to her own musical style.”

Back to Music for the Mysteries

Claus Røllum-Larsen reviewed the premiere during the Schubertiade 2011: "ORIGINAL AND VISIONARY MUSIC - ...which one was gradually captured by, and which made up a perfect universe. The performers achieved a condensed athmosphere of almost ritual magic. Not the least Agnethe Christensen's beautifully rounded and strongly formulated soli made a great impression. But it was of course Hanne Tofte Jespersen's desert that the performers had such original and visionary music to perform." Dagbladet 22 August.11

Listen to 1.movement
The wild woman

Who knows where I come from? Who am I,
or what I am?
I am the wild woman
older than time...

The still sea fell from my shoulders into the West and the hills drew in around me,
as I walked towards
the cloud caged sun.

Listen to 5.movement
The ancient man

”VERY exciting! The music holds both medieval, renaissance, folk music and the modern
- and at no point does it turn commonplace..."
Castle organist Sven-Ingvart Mikkelsen after the concert in Frederiksborg Castle Church

"You really took us on a journey"
audience' response after the concert in Harpa, Reykjavík

The musicians and singers are handpicked for the project and perform as soloists in Denmark and internationally: Agnethe Christensen in Benjamin Bagby's Sequentia a.o., Teit Kanstrup in Opera on Location a.o., Ida Bach Jensen in both her own cross over projects and others, Bente Vist in numerous first performances of new music, Kuno Kjærbye with pianist Kirsten Beyer-Karlshøj a.o., Anders Hvidberg-Hansen as percussionist within world music.
read more about the ensemble