VärldsOrkester
Flen has its own World Orchestra(VärldsOrkester)!
Flen has its own World Orchestra(VärldsOrkester)!
www.flenvarldsorkester.se
Our fine Sörmland is, thankfully, populated by people who come from all over the world.
Our new residents come to us with a bag full of experience. Some of them are singers or musicians, dancers or theater people.
Many, without being cultural workers, want to learn to stand on a stage and play, dance or to be actors, eg in a musical.
Almost everyone needs a gateway for getting to know our country and our way of living. At the same time we Swedes will have a chance to learn from the culture that our "new" Swedes bring to us.
To share each other's experiences and culture makes us all grow and mature as human beings.
A world orchestra gives us the opportunity to meet and we will understand each other without, necessarily, speak the same language.
I have played around the world and I can have a dialogue with a griot from Mali. I know which scales he uses when he sings.
One of the Arab world's main instruments is the oud. A fretless lute with nylon strings.
I play fretless nylon guitar and I know how their complicated scales works. In Syria (before this horrible war), I played with oud musicians, and without speaking the same language, the musical common language turns into a bridge that united us.
In India tabla and sitar are two of the most important instruments. With the group Worldream I have had the pleasure to play with one of Europe's best tabla players.
I also love Swedish folkmusic, and FlenVärldsOrkester is obviously also a place that welcomes Swedes and Swedish melodies.
What I mean by all this is that music is an important gateway and that I, who"speaks" many musical languages, can be the bridge that unites people.
Now Flen VärldsOrkester has become a reality thanks to Flen Kommun(Municipal Gouverment) that believes and has invested money in my project. During 12 months I'll be working on the project in collaboration with Opera Initiativet and with support from the Arts School, ABF and Study Promotion.
FlenVärldsOrkester welcomes all (professionals and amateurs) who wish to play, sing or dance and we rehearse at Amazon in parkgatan 3 Flen.
I have open house on Mondays and Tuesdays at 15-17 for those who want to know more or want to audition or sing.
The orchestra repeats Tuesdays 18-20:30. WELCOME!
(Lutte Berg)
3 feb-2016
Things happen!
Things happen .... Emilia (one of our singers) has been given a role at the Opera. Hasan (our rapper) understand that punctuality and physical presence is the most important thing in the music business (it does not matter how good you are if you are unreliable, at the end nobody will call you).
The Orchestra is now rehearsing with professionals spirit (our new song "Flenjoik" was ready in 1 hour!) And it's tangeble that we are approaching 12-13 March when we will play and record our videoclip. We get new members every week for the Orchestra and for the guitar course.
At the same time we have plans, in collaboration with the School of the Arts, about transforming the Amazon into a cultural center (with a capital C) for all cultural workers (Swedes and immigrants) and for those who do not necessarily work with culture, but who wants to start with such as dance, theater or image / video. We have also begun on a plan that includes national and international cooperation with similar projects around the world.
As I said... things happen :)
20 jan-2016
Nice review!
20 jan-2016
Full house
It is difficult to comment on what happened yesterday on Amazon in Flen. An incredible influx of people who wanted to participate, support and check out what "their" orchestra had to offer. We in the orchestra felt that something magical was happening. It's great to play when you feel the support from the crowd ... and the thunderous applause! My applause goes to the entire Flen :) Here are some pictures from the concert. Thanks for the pictures Bettan.
15 Jan-2016
P4
Today we were invited by Swedish Radio P4 for live music and interviews.We where a "delegation" made 9 band members (we're 20-25 persons and it becomes too much for the studio) .We had a great time and the radioshow turned out well(I believe) with four songs and well conducted interviews with the experienced P4 hosts. We had a great morning despite wake-up at 6:00 am and 22 degrees below zero :)
6 jan-2016
Celebration "finally" ends
Now the whole Christmas / New Year / Epiphany celebration "finally" ends! I hope everyone had a great vacation from work or school :) Talking about myself I had nice dinners interspersed with long and lovely arranging / composition sessions for the World Orchestra. We also had special rehearsels with different sections of the orchestra during the festivities ... so we have not been sitting and "waiting for better times," so to speak! Now it's the final rush to go before our debut concert on January 19 and it will be really fun! You're welcome!!!
23 dec-2015
Merry christmas!
Autumn 2015 has been fantastic for our newborn Flen World Orchestra! the curiosity and support that we feel from everyone warms our hearts. Magazines (e-kuriren, glimten, sörmlandsbygden), Sveriges Radio (Swedish Radio) and, not least, SVT1 (Swedish television) has all become aware of our WorldOrchestra. P4 has invited us into their recording studios for interviews and some live music. Flen municipality know follow us with curiousity and observing eyes (thanks Roger, Inger, Cecilia, Berit ... and everyone else in the municipality). Thanks to ABF who supports us. In the near future (Feb / March) FlenWorldOrchestra will record videoclip. Mobile recording studio from Stockholm comes to Amazon and the video piece is a collaboration between local filmmakers and lighting designers from the big city. Should be exciting! Now we take a small vacation from the rehearsals and get going again on 9 January. We wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!
11 dec-2015
Tv!
Tomorrow (Saturday, December 12) at 7:00 pm FlenWorldOrchestra on SVT1 in the cultureprogramme Sweden! Media continues to pay attention to our project. Great!
2 dec-2015
Joy infected!
Yesterday we had SVT(Swedish national television) visiting us.
Charlotte and Douglas from the culture programme "Sweden!" came to shoot a story about Flen World Orchestra.
It was a delightful experience for the orchestra and for almost everyone it was the first time they played before a television team.
After the first song (little nervosism in the beginning) the orchestra started to play properly! We rehearsed as usual while Charlotte and Douglas filmed and interviewed the band members in our short breaks. Happy and enriched by new experiences we parted and said hello to Charlotte and Douglas.
Later they texted me and "confessed" that they were JOY INFECTED!
28 nov-2015
Glimten(Swedish newspaper) and SVT(Swedish television)!
It happens sometimes that you do not have time to update what is happening regarding Flen World Orchestra.
In this case, it really depends on that we are working at full speed and that the week is full of news that we have to contend with. Positive stuff fortunately!
Among these, a small "private" mini show for Flen "language friends" in December (not official ... first official gig is the 19th jan), preparations for the big concert in January, the new arrangements to prepare for our orchestra before each tuesday repetition (the musicians in the orchestra are choosey), new mixer and new videocam to work with ...
This is just some of the things that must be done!
Luckily everything's fun ... and the media continues to look in to our work. The newspaper Glimten came out yesterday with a fine article ... and now on Tuesday SVT (Swedish television) will visit us for a reportage! Me and the entire Flen World Orchestra welcomes, as we always do, everyone who wants to come to Amazon in Flen and visit us ... maybe with the intention to play and sing with us!
11 Nov- 2015
Trouble sleeping!
In the night I had trouble sleeping. Why? Well ... it was because our rehearsal yesterday was an amazing experience for me.
Suddenly, after 5 rehearsals, the magic came into our music. My fellow musicians played with dynamism and put their soul at the disposal of the music.
I'm very proud of what the band can already accomplish. For that reason I post a lot of pictures. Unfortunately not all of us is in the fotos(Tea is sick, Lucho work night, Qatr Al Nada don’t know…).
We also had visitors such as Roger Tiefensee , others from the municipality and Fred Wennerholm so they joined us in the bandphoto too ... much like A.Hitchcock that always appear ina blink in his movies.
And thank you Marie Andersson for all the nice pictures.
3 nov-2015
Challenging
Fun and challenging rehearsal yesterday. Emilia, who is one of the singers in the band, texted me this week and said that she wanted to sing Libertango by Piazzolla (Yes that’s how it works.
You can basically "order" what you want to sing and I will arrange! What a luxury isn’t it?) . To do covers (playing other people's songs) can become a dangerous trap. Piazzolla died in 1992 but remains, together with Gardel, Argentina's greatest musicians of all time.
Piazzolla modernized tango music and took it to the "future". The danger and the trap of playing Libertango is trying to play it as Piazzolla did, to make use of his arrangements. So what became of our version?
Well, it became a "Turkish hip hop" version ... with a rap in the B part, and a really cool traditional Syrian dance number in the middle !!!
Our new members for the day (Obaidah, Salah and Johanna) had no problem catching up with us.
PS The pictures are a bit blurry.
27 okt-2015
Great joy.
Great joy past Tuesday! FlenVärldsOrkester continues to grow. Nine(!) new members in one day. Daniel, Ann-Marie and 7 young new friends from Syria: Qatr Al Nada, Ghazzl, Mohamad, Hassan, Mahmoud, Mohamed and Shawki.
They came, all nine, with lots of energy and we had a great rehearsing time. Hassan threw himself into the music and improvised a great rap peformance and, right after,Mahmoud did his!
"Princess" and Qatr Al Nada did some backingvocals and played my home-made shakers (caffe 'lavazza jars with dried lentils and chickpeas!). Some of us danced and Mohamed photographed when he wasn't busy doing backingvocals .... I could go on writing forever!
We have also started study circles. Guitar and keyboard lessons, among others! And soon we will start cooking great meals together ...
13 okt-2015
Second rehearsal
Yesterday FlenVärldsOrkester rehearsed for the second time.
I led the rehearsal with fever, and with my trachea in such lousy condition that it was difficult to talk ... but it's incredible how all my musician friends made me totally forget my temporary physical problems!
We had 4 new members joining the Orchestra, and it actually seems like it could really turn out well.
We are already beginning to get a "sound" that we like, and the sound is characterized by that we come from all over the world and and that we bring out the culture we come from.
Here are some photos from the rehearsal yesterday .... and remember: we welcome many many more who want to play, dance or sing with us at Amazon in Flen!
Open House Mon-Tue 15-17. Collective rehearsal Tue 18-20:30 ca.
9 okt-2015
It’s great that newspapers and media are already curious and interested in our FlenVärldsOrkester!
7/8 okt-2015
Interview in "förmiddag i P4" on Sveriges Radio
6 okt-2015
First rehearsal!
Last Tuesday we had the first rehearsal of the members of the FlenVärldsOrkester!
A fabulous mix of people. We were 10 musicians from 6 different countries that played and gave all from ourselves!
It was for me an enormous joy to see how already in the first rehearsal it worked out in a very positive way.
I now look forward to the next Tuesday when we will meet again and I hope that even more people will join us.
Remember ... it is a place for everyone and everyone is welcome!
Flen has its own World Orchestra(VärldsOrkester)!
Flen has its own World Orchestra(VärldsOrkester)!
www.flenvarldsorkester.se
Our fine Sörmland is, thankfully, populated by people who come from all over the world.
Our new residents come to us with a bag full of experience. Some of them are singers or musicians, dancers or theater people.
Many, without being cultural workers, want to learn to stand on a stage and play, dance or to be actors, eg in a musical.
Almost everyone needs a gateway for getting to know our country and our way of living. At the same time we Swedes will have a chance to learn from the culture that our "new" Swedes bring to us.
To share each other's experiences and culture makes us all grow and mature as human beings.
A world orchestra gives us the opportunity to meet and we will understand each other without, necessarily, speak the same language.
I have played around the world and I can have a dialogue with a griot from Mali. I know which scales he uses when he sings.
One of the Arab world's main instruments is the oud. A fretless lute with nylon strings.
I play fretless nylon guitar and I know how their complicated scales works. In Syria (before this horrible war), I played with oud musicians, and without speaking the same language, the musical common language turns into a bridge that united us.
In India tabla and sitar are two of the most important instruments. With the group Worldream I have had the pleasure to play with one of Europe's best tabla players.
I also love Swedish folkmusic, and FlenVärldsOrkester is obviously also a place that welcomes Swedes and Swedish melodies.
What I mean by all this is that music is an important gateway and that I, who"speaks" many musical languages, can be the bridge that unites people.
Now Flen VärldsOrkester has become a reality thanks to Flen Kommun(Municipal Gouverment) that believes and has invested money in my project. During 12 months I'll be working on the project in collaboration with Opera Initiativet and with support from the Arts School, ABF and Study Promotion.
FlenVärldsOrkester welcomes all (professionals and amateurs) who wish to play, sing or dance and we rehearse at Amazon in parkgatan 3 Flen.
I have open house on Mondays and Tuesdays at 15-17 for those who want to know more or want to audition or sing.
The orchestra repeats Tuesdays 18-20:30. WELCOME!
(Lutte Berg)
3 feb-2016
Things happen!
Things happen .... Emilia (one of our singers) has been given a role at the Opera. Hasan (our rapper) understand that punctuality and physical presence is the most important thing in the music business (it does not matter how good you are if you are unreliable, at the end nobody will call you).
The Orchestra is now rehearsing with professionals spirit (our new song "Flenjoik" was ready in 1 hour!) And it's tangeble that we are approaching 12-13 March when we will play and record our videoclip. We get new members every week for the Orchestra and for the guitar course.
At the same time we have plans, in collaboration with the School of the Arts, about transforming the Amazon into a cultural center (with a capital C) for all cultural workers (Swedes and immigrants) and for those who do not necessarily work with culture, but who wants to start with such as dance, theater or image / video. We have also begun on a plan that includes national and international cooperation with similar projects around the world.
As I said... things happen :)
20 jan-2016
Nice review!
20 jan-2016
Full house
It is difficult to comment on what happened yesterday on Amazon in Flen. An incredible influx of people who wanted to participate, support and check out what "their" orchestra had to offer. We in the orchestra felt that something magical was happening. It's great to play when you feel the support from the crowd ... and the thunderous applause! My applause goes to the entire Flen :) Here are some pictures from the concert. Thanks for the pictures Bettan.
15 Jan-2016
P4
Today we were invited by Swedish Radio P4 for live music and interviews.We where a "delegation" made 9 band members (we're 20-25 persons and it becomes too much for the studio) .We had a great time and the radioshow turned out well(I believe) with four songs and well conducted interviews with the experienced P4 hosts. We had a great morning despite wake-up at 6:00 am and 22 degrees below zero :)
6 jan-2016
Celebration "finally" ends
Now the whole Christmas / New Year / Epiphany celebration "finally" ends! I hope everyone had a great vacation from work or school :) Talking about myself I had nice dinners interspersed with long and lovely arranging / composition sessions for the World Orchestra. We also had special rehearsels with different sections of the orchestra during the festivities ... so we have not been sitting and "waiting for better times," so to speak! Now it's the final rush to go before our debut concert on January 19 and it will be really fun! You're welcome!!!
23 dec-2015
Merry christmas!
Autumn 2015 has been fantastic for our newborn Flen World Orchestra! the curiosity and support that we feel from everyone warms our hearts. Magazines (e-kuriren, glimten, sörmlandsbygden), Sveriges Radio (Swedish Radio) and, not least, SVT1 (Swedish television) has all become aware of our WorldOrchestra. P4 has invited us into their recording studios for interviews and some live music. Flen municipality know follow us with curiousity and observing eyes (thanks Roger, Inger, Cecilia, Berit ... and everyone else in the municipality). Thanks to ABF who supports us. In the near future (Feb / March) FlenWorldOrchestra will record videoclip. Mobile recording studio from Stockholm comes to Amazon and the video piece is a collaboration between local filmmakers and lighting designers from the big city. Should be exciting! Now we take a small vacation from the rehearsals and get going again on 9 January. We wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!
11 dec-2015
Tv!
Tomorrow (Saturday, December 12) at 7:00 pm FlenWorldOrchestra on SVT1 in the cultureprogramme Sweden! Media continues to pay attention to our project. Great!
2 dec-2015
Joy infected!
Yesterday we had SVT(Swedish national television) visiting us.
Charlotte and Douglas from the culture programme "Sweden!" came to shoot a story about Flen World Orchestra.
It was a delightful experience for the orchestra and for almost everyone it was the first time they played before a television team.
After the first song (little nervosism in the beginning) the orchestra started to play properly! We rehearsed as usual while Charlotte and Douglas filmed and interviewed the band members in our short breaks. Happy and enriched by new experiences we parted and said hello to Charlotte and Douglas.
Later they texted me and "confessed" that they were JOY INFECTED!
28 nov-2015
Glimten(Swedish newspaper) and SVT(Swedish television)!
It happens sometimes that you do not have time to update what is happening regarding Flen World Orchestra.
In this case, it really depends on that we are working at full speed and that the week is full of news that we have to contend with. Positive stuff fortunately!
Among these, a small "private" mini show for Flen "language friends" in December (not official ... first official gig is the 19th jan), preparations for the big concert in January, the new arrangements to prepare for our orchestra before each tuesday repetition (the musicians in the orchestra are choosey), new mixer and new videocam to work with ...
This is just some of the things that must be done!
Luckily everything's fun ... and the media continues to look in to our work. The newspaper Glimten came out yesterday with a fine article ... and now on Tuesday SVT (Swedish television) will visit us for a reportage! Me and the entire Flen World Orchestra welcomes, as we always do, everyone who wants to come to Amazon in Flen and visit us ... maybe with the intention to play and sing with us!
11 Nov- 2015
Trouble sleeping!
In the night I had trouble sleeping. Why? Well ... it was because our rehearsal yesterday was an amazing experience for me.
Suddenly, after 5 rehearsals, the magic came into our music. My fellow musicians played with dynamism and put their soul at the disposal of the music.
I'm very proud of what the band can already accomplish. For that reason I post a lot of pictures. Unfortunately not all of us is in the fotos(Tea is sick, Lucho work night, Qatr Al Nada don’t know…).
We also had visitors such as Roger Tiefensee , others from the municipality and Fred Wennerholm so they joined us in the bandphoto too ... much like A.Hitchcock that always appear ina blink in his movies.
And thank you Marie Andersson for all the nice pictures.
3 nov-2015
Challenging
Fun and challenging rehearsal yesterday. Emilia, who is one of the singers in the band, texted me this week and said that she wanted to sing Libertango by Piazzolla (Yes that’s how it works.
You can basically "order" what you want to sing and I will arrange! What a luxury isn’t it?) . To do covers (playing other people's songs) can become a dangerous trap. Piazzolla died in 1992 but remains, together with Gardel, Argentina's greatest musicians of all time.
Piazzolla modernized tango music and took it to the "future". The danger and the trap of playing Libertango is trying to play it as Piazzolla did, to make use of his arrangements. So what became of our version?
Well, it became a "Turkish hip hop" version ... with a rap in the B part, and a really cool traditional Syrian dance number in the middle !!!
Our new members for the day (Obaidah, Salah and Johanna) had no problem catching up with us.
PS The pictures are a bit blurry.
27 okt-2015
Great joy.
Great joy past Tuesday! FlenVärldsOrkester continues to grow. Nine(!) new members in one day. Daniel, Ann-Marie and 7 young new friends from Syria: Qatr Al Nada, Ghazzl, Mohamad, Hassan, Mahmoud, Mohamed and Shawki.
They came, all nine, with lots of energy and we had a great rehearsing time. Hassan threw himself into the music and improvised a great rap peformance and, right after,Mahmoud did his!
"Princess" and Qatr Al Nada did some backingvocals and played my home-made shakers (caffe 'lavazza jars with dried lentils and chickpeas!). Some of us danced and Mohamed photographed when he wasn't busy doing backingvocals .... I could go on writing forever!
We have also started study circles. Guitar and keyboard lessons, among others! And soon we will start cooking great meals together ...
13 okt-2015
Second rehearsal
Yesterday FlenVärldsOrkester rehearsed for the second time.
I led the rehearsal with fever, and with my trachea in such lousy condition that it was difficult to talk ... but it's incredible how all my musician friends made me totally forget my temporary physical problems!
We had 4 new members joining the Orchestra, and it actually seems like it could really turn out well.
We are already beginning to get a "sound" that we like, and the sound is characterized by that we come from all over the world and and that we bring out the culture we come from.
Here are some photos from the rehearsal yesterday .... and remember: we welcome many many more who want to play, dance or sing with us at Amazon in Flen!
Open House Mon-Tue 15-17. Collective rehearsal Tue 18-20:30 ca.
9 okt-2015
It’s great that newspapers and media are already curious and interested in our FlenVärldsOrkester!
7/8 okt-2015
Interview in "förmiddag i P4" on Sveriges Radio
6 okt-2015
First rehearsal!
Last Tuesday we had the first rehearsal of the members of the FlenVärldsOrkester!
A fabulous mix of people. We were 10 musicians from 6 different countries that played and gave all from ourselves!
It was for me an enormous joy to see how already in the first rehearsal it worked out in a very positive way.
I now look forward to the next Tuesday when we will meet again and I hope that even more people will join us.
Remember ... it is a place for everyone and everyone is welcome!