Bente Illevold: Euphonium Virtuoso

I’m excited to feature Bente Illevold, the internationally renowned Norwegian euphonium player who has carved out a unique career path as a euphonium virtuoso. During this podcast, you’ll be hearing clips from some of her albums and live performances, and in the complete show notes on my website you’ll find the links to these specific albums and videos. I first heard about Bente from Katherine Needleman, when she asked Bente to premiere a newly commissioned concert piece for euphonium and piano by Kyrese Washington. Bente will be playing the American premiere of this new work at the International Women’s Brass Conference right after the release of this podcast, and the clip you’re going to hear is from the world premiere performance earlier this spring. Bente talked to me about her exciting new Rendalen Low Brass Seminar and ways to address the problems around inclusivity in the low brass world. She also spoke more broadly about music pedagogy and the importance of careful listening and self-reflection, and she stressed the need for authencity in engaging with our listeners. Video and transcript and all suggested episodes Bente Illevold websiteBuy me a coffee? Podcast merchNewsletter Other suggested episodes: Katherine Needleman Hillary Simms (the rest in the show notes on my website linked above, since I ran out of allowed words here!) (00:00) Intro(02:11) Euphonium’s place in the brass world, Kyrese Washington commission from Katherine Needleman(06:02) International Women’s Brass Conference(07:57) clip of Sonatine de Larmes by Kyrese Washington from live performance in Oslo, with pianist Monica Tomescu-Rohd(09:53) euphonium repertoire(12:30) lack of inclusivity in the low brass world, taking risks(15:45) collaborations with percussionist Anders Kregnes Hansen, Stig Nordhagen(18:46) clip from 2nd movement of Baut by Stig Nordhagen(20:14) problems with lack of community engagement with the arts(27:29) Music education and advice(36:58) why Bente loves Marcus Paus’ Notturno Lockdown Lullaby(42:12) live performance of Marcus Paus’ Notturno Lockdown Lullaby(45:16) Bente’s approach to writing music, perfectionism in Classical music(56:48) other episodes linked, ways to support this series(57:52) about Elbaus’ DSDHT Euphonium with fixed media, with audio clip(01:00:22) touring, Northern Lights duo with David Earll, Rendalen Low Brass Seminar(01:09:08) clip of live performance Northern Lights duo (link in show notes)(01:10:59) lack of inclusion in low brass community, Katherine Needleman, commission from Kyrese Washington(01:23:13) advice how to keep improving