All-female Norwegian brass ensemble tenThing plays a Vancouver Recital Society concert, February 23
Led by trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, 10-piece group promises a varied program featuring West Side Story songs, “Hoe-Down” from Rodeo, and plenty more

Brass ensemble tenThing. Photo by Anna-Julia Granberg
Vancouver Recital Society is presenting tenThing—a 10-piece, all-female brass ensemble from Norway—at the Vancouver Playhouse on February 23 at 3 pm.
In 2012, the Vancouver Recital Society presented its first-ever trumpet recital featuring Tine Thing Helseth in her Canadian debut. Helseth is now considered one of the world’s leading trumpeters in addition to being an artist who challenges the boundaries of genre with an intensely creative, open-minded philosophy. Helseth will now return to play a VRS concert at the helm of tenThing, which she founded with her closest musical friends.
The members of tenThing include trumpeters Maren Ingeborg Tjernsli and Guro Bjørnstad Kraft; flugelhorn player Elin Holmen Kurverud; horn player Lena Wik; tuba player Heidi Solem; trombonists Marie Nøkelby Hanssen, Ingeborg Klovholt, and Tone Christin Lium Røssland; and bass trombonist Astri Karoline Ellann.
A lively, fun afternoon of music is in store for audiences. The richly varied program includes the prelude from Edvard Grieg’s high-energy Holberg Suite; Jean-Baptiste Lully’s suite from Molière’s 1670 comédie-ballet Le Bourgeois gentilhomme; and Isaac Albéniz’s “Asturias” movement from his Suite española, Op. 47, a work devoted to the geographical regions of Spain. The ensemble will also play three Leonard Bernstein songs from West Side Story: “I Feel Pretty”, “A Boy Like That/I Have A Love”, and “Tonight”.
More works on the program include American composer Aaron Copland’s famed “Hoe-Down” from his 1942 ballet Rodeo; a rendition of George Gershwin’s aria “Summertime” from the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess; Cécile Chaminade’s Rondeau, Op. 97; Florence Price’s Adoration; Billie Holiday’s Grammy Hall of Fame Award–winning jazz song “God Bless the Child”; and more.
TenThing rose to prominence performing across Norway, and played for a national audience as openers of the 2011 Spellemannprisen award ceremony (the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy Awards). Soon after, the group drew international attention with an appearance at the BBC Proms at London’s Cadogan Hall. The ensemble has toured to the National Centre for Performing Arts’s May Festival in Beijing, the Merano Music Festival in Italy, and beyond.
Tickets to see tenThing and more details are available through the Vancouver Recital Society.
Post sponsored by Vancouver Recital Society.
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