US tour and Banff

Hi! I´m writing this blog from lovely Banff in Alberta, Canada. This is one of the most scenic spots in Canada and it´s quite a tourist attraction in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. I´m going to stay here for 2X3 months doing a long-term creative artist residency at the Banff Centre. I did a 4-week short term residency in February 2008, but this will be the real thing! Now I have a unique chance to update my technique, learn a lot of music and really do all the things that I´ve been thinking of doing but never got the chance to do. So there will be 5 months (2,5 + 2,5 actually) of intense and compressed work. But recreation is never a problem in these environments.. pool, jacuzzi, bar, panoramic restaurant, hotel room and of course wonderful scenery with plenty of hiking trails and skiing. So recovery and relaxation is also compressed here! 

I flew in from Seattle this morning after the Nordic Elegance tour part 2 to the north western USofA. I was on the road for 4 weeks doing 14 concerts. It was a lot of fun, great variety of audience (both in age and size), many different pianos to adapt to, quite a lot of driving and so forth. It´s a challenge to keep the energy and inspiration up when you do a concert program that many times. But it went well and it was a success everywhere. But my mind is very focused on Banff now and I really think this will be a wonderful period. I´ve done the Nordic Elegance program over 30 times this year and in between tours I finished my masters in Trondheim playing Scriabin + Grieg concerto in Moldova. I also "swallowed" a huge amount of music this summer accompanying singers. So now I feel very ready to start a new progressive circle of ideas, development and action. I´ll work on new pieces related to technical work now, early Beethoven, Scarlatti, Rachmaninov and some crazy difficult etudes. Then I´ll prepare new program(s) after Christmas! I think one of them will be called "From Grieg to Gershwin." I won´t go into details yet, but I think it has great potential. I´ll also pick up a whole lot of pieces I´ve played over the years and re-study them with updated technique and artistic insight. I´ll also do some physical and spiritual experiments concerning for instance yoga, meditation, exercise and diet. And this is a perfect place to do such things. Now I can have routines for the first time in a LONG time for instance. We also live in a "bubble" here where you don´t have to worry about anything from the so-called real world. So all these things are much easier to accomplish because you don´t have to adapt to anything at all. 

I´ll tell you more next Sunday! Because this blog will be updated every Sunday from now on. I have no idea what I´ll write, because I just start to write and I don´t know where I´ll end up... See ya!