
NEWS
News and media features
HORTEN CHURCH FILLS UP FOR CONCERTS: - TECHNICAL BRILLIANCE AND CHARISMATIC RADIANCE
18.02.2025
With a fantastic new Nott Steinway grand piano in place, the church has become even more attractive for major stars to perform in. On March 6, for example, a new edition of the Grand Piano fest will be held — this time titled "From Classical Gems to Piazzolla."
- When wind players from the Royal Norwegian Navy Band meet the renowned pianist Tatia Chikovani in the newly renovated Horten Church, you can expect a truly special concert experience,” says Truls Sanaker to Gjengangeren.
Read more at: Horten kirke fylles til konserter: -Teknisk briljans og karismatisk utstraling - Gjengangeren.no ( Norwegian, paywall )
ELEVATED A RAINY AUTUMN EVENING INTO AN EVENING BEYOND COMPARE
12.09.2021
Last year should have marked the tenth anniversary of the Sunnmøre Chamber Music Festival, but the pandemic brought everything to a halt. This year, the festival finally returned—and it was clear that many people were grateful. One tradition of the festival is to present a concert at the Hareid Prayer House, now known as the Hareid Parish House. The Friday-evening concert was sold out, filling the hall to capacity.
Health precautions were taken seriously. The organizers made sure everyone in the audience registered their name and phone number, and only family members could sit with their chairs close together; everyone else had to maintain distance. Yet even though people had to stay physically apart, they shared a cultural experience through the music. The audience listened intently and absorbed every note.
And the music itself was exceptional—first-class works performed by outstanding musicians.
Read more at: Løfta ein regnfull haustkveld til ein kveld i særklasse - vikebladet.no ( Norwegian )
WANTS TO CHAMPION CLASSICAL MUSIC
31.08.2021
Under konserten på Hareid 10. september, som går føre seg i kyrkjelydshuset, kan publikum få eit gjenhøyr med Tatia Chikovani og Wolfgang Plagge, som leverte ein fantastisk klaverkonsert på same stad under avslutninga av Hareidsstemna i 2019. Det var ein av dei første konsertane som tok i bruk det flotte konsertflygelet i lokalet og den gong sleit Arild Grimstad med å finne ord etter å ha høyrt dei to dyktige musikarane.
– Eg hadde aldri trudd at eg skulle få mi største klaveroppleving i Hareid bedehus, sa Grimstad den gongen.
I år får Chikovani og Plagge med seg Astrid Nordstad, Björn Nyman, Annar Follesø, Janina Kronberger, Einar Kyvik Bauge og Birgitta Oftestad under konserten, der ein mellom anna skal innom Schubert, Stravinskij og Mozart
Read more at: Vil slå eit slag for den klassiske musikken - vikebladet.no ( Norwegian )
WHAT MAKES A MASTER PIANIST FROM GEORGIA PLAY FOR FREE IN HAREID?
03.11.2019
During the closing concert of Hareidsstemna last Sunday, the master pianist from Georgia dazzled everyone in attendance.
To be fair, pianist and composer Wolfgang Plagge also took part in the concert at the Hareid Prayer House, and the audience were just as impressed by him. When the two of them ended the programme with Franz Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor for Four Hands—performed on grand piano and piano—it felt as though the roof of the Prayer House split open and heaven poured down on the listeners.
Plagge, the artistic director of the Sunnmøre Chamber Music Festival, helped choose the C. Bechstein grand piano that the Hafest team acquired for the Hareid Prayer House. On Sunday both pianists performed without accepting any fee, and the ticket income went in full to the fund-raising campaign for the new grand piano.
But Tatia was actually the very first to contribute: back in March she had also come to Hareid and given a free concert to raise money for the instrument.
Read more at: – Eg vart stum då eg fekk høyre Tatia spele piano - vikebladet.no ( Norwegian )
AN INTERNATIONAL TOP-CLASS INSTRUMENT
21.10.2019
Hareid has acquired a concert grand piano it can be truly proud of. On Sunday, it took centre stage in a magnificent piano concert at the Hareid Prayer House.
Reactions after the performance were immediate. When Wolfgang Plagge stepped back into the hall after the last finger had left the keys, the audience flocked around him—both to praise the accomplished pianist and to capture the moment in photos with Plagge.
Sunday evening, he and Tatia Chikovani delivered a formidable programme in the Hareid Prayer House, closing the Hareidsstemna festival with a piano concert on Hareid’s new musical jewel: the concert grand that Plagge himself had been instrumental in selecting.
Read more at: – Eit internasjonalt toppinstrument - vikebladet.no (Norwegian )
A MAGICAL HEAD START FOR THE NEW-PIANO FUND
10.04.2019
After Monday evening’s concert at the Hareid Prayer House, the young Georgian pianist Tatia Chikovani seized the chance to kick-start the drive for a new concert grand piano in Hareid.
She had noticed on Facebook that Hareid was looking for one, and she insisted that all proceeds from the concert be donated to the cause.
The turnout was strong enough to raise several thousand kroner in seed money.
Truth be told, the sounds that flowed from the “old grand piano” that evening were anything but discordant—it was more like magic.
Read more at: Magisk tjuvstart på innsamling til nytt flygel - vikebladet.no ( Norwegian )