This year’s International Composer Festival is dedicated to the French-American composer Betsy Jolas. She is the same age as Konserthuset and turns 100 in August.In her Paris circle were figures such as James Joyce, Henri Matisse and Ernest Hemingway. Now the French-American composer is presented in the Composer Festival with orchestral and chamber music – including a world premiere.
Betsy Jolas studied composition in Paris in the 1940s. At the festival opening with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Ryan Bancroft, trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger also appears, having worked closely with Jolas. “She has dined with Stravinsky and studied with Milhaud, served as assistant to and succeeded Messiaen …”, Hardenberger remarked a few years ago, noting that she is part of modern music history.
For the Composer Festival, Betsy Jolas has chosen to place her own music in dialogue with that of others – like a conversation with history and with composers she has, in some cases, known as colleagues. The carefully curated and finely balanced programmes therefore also include music by Maurice Ravel and Albert Roussel, Dmitri Shostakovich, Tōru Takemitsu and Witold Lutosławski – and, of course, Olivier Messiaen.
The festival takes place at Konserthuset Stockholm, one of Stockholm’s most recognisable buildings and home to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The blue Konserthuset Stockholm at Hötorget is one of Stockholm’s most recognisable buildings and venue for several prominent award ceremonies, such as the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. Built in 1926, the leading artists of the era were commissioned to conceive the new concert hall in a timeless style, harnessing motifs from two different worlds: classical Greece and the history of music.
The closest airports to Stockholm are Arlanda Airport and Bromma Airport. Shuttle buses or express trains operate to central Stockholm. You can also arrive to Stockholm via train to Stockholm Central, then a 10 minute-walk to Hötorget.
There is a wide variety of hotels in and around Stockholm. The nearest hotels are Haymarket by Scandic, which is located right opposite Konserthuset Stockholm at Hötorget; Scandic Grand Central and Miss Clara Hotel.
There are one restaurant and several bars in Konserthuset Stockholm which serve a number of classic Swedish dishes, snacks, pastries, drinks and much more.
