Konsertprogram

Season Opener with Beethoven and Shostakovich

The Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra opens the season with a concert that ranges from a serene sunrise to powerful orchestral splendor, under the baton of principal conductor and artistic director Eduardo Strausser. The soloist is the internationally renowned violinist Ava Bahari from Gothenburg. Danish-American composer Lil Lacy’s work *Aurōra* opens the evening with a musical awakening. This is followed by Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, and the concert concludes with Shostakovich’s First Symphony. Norrlandsoperan || August 27, 2026 Starts at 7:00 p.m. Duration: approx. 2 hours 20 minutes, including a 30-minute intermission. Join us for an introduction at 6:25 p.m. in the Public Foyer.

Program

Lil Lacy: Aurōra, 10 min

Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto, 42 min

I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Larghetto
III. Rondo: Allegro

30-minute break

Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1, 35 min

I. Allegretto; Allegro non troppo
II. Allegro
III. Lento
IV. Allegro molto; Lento

More about the concert

Aurōra, Beethoven, and Shostakovich

The season opener with the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra moves between three different musical worlds: from a contemporary work in which light slowly breaks through, through Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, to Shostakovich’s First Symphony, filled with energy and humor.

The evening begins with *Aurōra* by the Danish-American composer Lil Lacy. A work from 2023 in which the music emerges from near-total silence. The title alludes to dawn and the morning glow. The piece opens with dark, muffled sounds, but the soundscape gradually opens up to something clearer. The evening’s conductor is Eduardo Strausser, chief conductor and artistic director of the Norrlandsoperan.

Lil Lacy is a composer and sound artist who studied at institutions including Berklee College of Music and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. Her music has been performed by ensembles and orchestras in both Europe and the United States. Lacy has said that nature is a major source of inspiration, and in *Aurōra*, the orchestra becomes almost like a landscape in motion.

Next is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major. The concerto was completed very late before its premiere in Vienna in 1806 and received a rather lukewarm reception. Many felt that the music was unusually long and demanding.

It wasn’t until several decades later that the concerto achieved its true breakthrough. Over the years, it has become one of Beethoven’s most beloved works.

The concerto consists of three movements and begins unusually quietly with a few muted beats on the timpani before the orchestra presents the main theme. When the solo violin enters, the expression is soft and ethereal. Beethoven allows the music to unfold slowly, giving space to melodies and timbres.

The slow second movement has a tranquil, almost dreamlike character. Without a pause, the music flows seamlessly into the finale, which is filled with energy, humor, and dance-like rhythms. Here, the expression becomes more playful, before the concert concludes with a powerful finale.

The soloist is violinist Ava Bahari, who grew up in Gothenburg. She was something of a musical prodigy who began playing the violin at the age of three and was only eight years old when she made her debut as a soloist at the Gothenburg Concert Hall. Bahari later studied at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, among other institutions.

After the intermission, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 awaits—a work he composed as his graduation project at the Leningrad Conservatory when he was just nineteen years old. Despite his young age, Shostakovich created a work that contained much of what would later make him world-famous: sharp contrasts, beautiful solos, irony, and sudden shifts between humor and darkness.

In the symphony’s four movements, we hear a composer who has already found his voice. The work begins with a muted trumpet answered by the bassoon, before the clarinet takes over alongside the strings’ pizzicato. The music then builds into a light and lively allegretto. The second movement is fast and rhythmic, while the third slows the tempo and takes on a more tranquil and contemplative character, featuring an expressive oboe solo at the beginning. A drum roll leads directly into the finale, which begins restrained but soon bursts into an intense conclusion. The symphony premiered in 1926 and was a great success.

Tonight’s program also serves as a prelude to the Beethoven Year 2027, when the world will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.

The Musicians

Eduardo Strausser, chief conductor of the Norrlandsoperan, was born in 1985 in São Paulo, Brazil, and has been living in Berlin for several years. He is a frequently engaged conductor and has worked with orchestras in South America, Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. He is also an experienced opera conductor, a skill he developed during his tenure as Resident Conductor at Teatro São Paulo from 2014 to 2016. Even during his studies at the Zurich University of the Arts, Eduardo developed an interest in works by contemporary composers, a passion he brings with him to the Norrlands Opera. He was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director at the Norrlands Opera, a position he assumed in the fall of 2024 with a term running through the spring of 2027.

Eduardo Strausser also collaborates regularly with the Kansas City Symphony and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and has conducted the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Utah Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Orchestre de Montpellier, and the Argovia Philharmonic. Previous collaborations include orchestras in Europe such as the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In the United States, he has worked with the symphony orchestras of North Carolina, Detroit, and Indianapolis. He has also worked with the Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, as well as the New Zealand and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.

Ava Bahari has been described by *The Strad* as “a prominent rising talent” and is a highly accomplished Swedish violinist with a refreshing penchant for unusual and innovative repertoire. She is currently Artist in Residence with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and has been named an ECHO Rising Star for the 2026/27 season. Bahari has received numerous prestigious awards, including top placements at the Premio Paganini in Genoa (2021), the Concours International Tibor Varga in Sion (2021), and the Aurora Music Competition in Stockholm (2019).

During the 2024–25 and 2025–26 seasons, Ava Bahari will be Artist in Residence with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She opened the orchestra’s 2024–25 season alongside Chief Conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali in a performance of Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto and returned in the spring of 2025 to perform Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, once again under Rouvali’s baton.

During the 2024–25 season, Bahari collaborated for the first time with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. She also made her Japanese concert debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under principal conductor Jonathan Nott, performing Schoenberg’s Violin Concerto. Bahari also returned to the Swedish Chamber Orchestra to give the Swedish premiere of James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto No. 2 alongside conductor and composer Brett Dean, as well as to the Gävle Symphony Orchestra.

In previous seasons, she has performed with, among others, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Among the conductors and artistic collaborators she has worked with are Pekka Kuusisto, Andrew Manze, Tabita Berglund, Vasily Petrenko, Jaime Martín, and James MacMillan.

As a dedicated chamber musician, Bahari has performed at prestigious festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and the Santander Music Festival. She has also collaborated with musicians such as Kirill Gerstein, Daniel Hope, Adrien La Marca, and Camille Thomas. As part of her two-year residency with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, she will also perform in two chamber music concerts alongside the orchestra’s musicians.
Among her acclaimed recitals are a Paganini concert at the Seoul Arts Center, a concert on the famous 1734 Guarneri del Gesù violin “Stauffer” at the Museo del Violino in Cremona, and a recital at the Konzerthaus Berlin.

In the spring of 2024, Bahari earned her Konzertexamen degree from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, following bachelor’s and master’s studies under the guidance of Professor Kolja Blacher. In 2021, she also completed her studies at the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona, Italy.

Ava Bahari plays an Antonio Stradivari violin built in Cremona in 1694, generously loaned by the Anders Sveaas Charitable Foundation (ASAF).

https://www.avabahari.com/

Violin I

Kanerva Mannermaa, Miguel Chamorro, Andreas Olsson, Kitiara Braune, Amandus Lind, Per-Erik Andersson, Arly Rivero, Mikhail Zatin

Violin II

Pontus Björk, Clara Bjerhag, Matias Malmqvist, Håkan Svedell, Kersti Wilhelmsson, EvaBritt Molander, Nicole Ladenthin

Viola

Ester Forsberg, Pablo Muñoz Salido, Johanne Skaansar, Doris Mägi, Dusica Cvijanovic, Åsa Hjelm

Cello

Simon Sundström, Bekhbat Tsagaanchuluun, Kerstin Isaksson, Kristina Tereschatov, Karin Bjurman

Double bass

Jan-Emil Kuisma, Charlotte Petersson, Josefin Landmér

Flute

Ebba Wallén, Panak Hashemian, Georgiana Hughes

Oboe

Johannes Ögren, Emmanuel Rolland-Bezem

Clarinet

Tania Villasuso Couceiro, Jonas Olsson Hakelind

Bassoon

Peter Bolton, Maria Kindell

Horn

Orvar Johansson, Yerang Ko, Edna Fernandes, Anders Kjellberg

Trumpet

Malin Silbo-Ohlsson, Benjamin Mortensen, Martin Lood

Trombone

Peter Nygren, Matilda Gerhardsson, Mathias Petersson

Tuba

Linus Mattsson

Timpani

Ian Piniés

Percussion

Maximiliano Polo, Per Mikaelsson, Bruno Miguez Lamanuzzi

Piano

Jonas Olsson

Learn more about the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra here: norrlandsoperan.se/norrlandsoperans-symfoniorkester

Pursuant to

Norrlandsoperan is 60% owned by Region Västerbotten and 40% by the City of Umeå. We receive grants from the Swedish Arts Council.

Many thanks to all our donors, sponsors, and partners.