Hello again everyone!
It has been a while since I have written an article for my artist page on Facebook and www.trentbruner.com, but as I promised in May 2019, here is the latest information and an update on other news. Life has been busy between music work and family, so this will be a catch up article covering other news that had not been posted between September 2018 and May 2019.
The theme of this article is church activities, music and family.
In my
organist position with the Norwegian Lutheran Church, I worked often with former Pastor
Helle Maria Wolstad, assistants Gerd Karin Njaastad, Kristoffer Foldøy and
Bjørn Tore Hendriksen (the support group) with the music confirmation group
over the 2018-2019 school year, which took 14 and 15 year old school students who
were confirmation candidates that had musical talent and were taking music and
dance lessons through the Osterøy Culture School. In the end, we had 13
candidates from all over Osterøy who were actively involved in two major church
presentations, both held in Hosanger Lutheran Church and well received by all
in attendance.
The first
presentation was a Christmas production with the support group, the music
confirmation group and the Fotlandsvåg Brass Band December 14th,
with a Christmas presentation by Swiss Composer Paul Burkhard titled “The
Loveliest Night.” This was translated from German to Norwegian by Pastor
Wolstad’s grandfather, who was a missionary in Africa and he had also translated this
musical into a local African language. It became my task to take the Norwegian
translation of the adapted arrangements and create musical arrangements around
them that the group could play with the talents they had. Between pianists,
singers, percussionists, dancers and the Fotlandsvåg Brass Band, we were able
to make a quality presentation that covered The Christmas Story from the Book
of Luke Chapter Two.
The second presentation was an Easter Monday presentation titled “Påske I ord
og toner” (Easter in Scripture and Song) that was held on Easter Monday, April
22nd. The same confirmation
music group along with Cantor Baard Eikkas and the Osterøy Community Choir
(Osterøykoret) presented The Easter Story from the Four Gospels from Palm
Sunday to Easter Sunday, from Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem to The Last
Supper, The Night in Gethsemane, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection. There
were 177 people in attendance for the second annual Easter presentation.
After the Easter presentation, a highlight for our family was that our 15 year
old daughter Hannah Moira Midtbø-Bruner was confirmed on May 5th,
2019 at Hamre Lutheran Church. My mother, Gerda Bruner, came from Saskatchewan
to Norway for the celebration as was of tremendous help for all of us in the
preparations. The Hamre Local Church Board also invited Hannah to play at her
confirmation service. 31 candidates were confirmed that Sunday morning. Hannah
was in the second service and accepted the invitation to play on violin while I
accompanied her on piano. We played a Sven Nyhus composition titled “Bergrosa”
(The Mountain Rose) for a packed church of over 280 people before the pastor’s
sermon. Her playing was well received by all present. With a surprise
appearance by some of her friends from the Bergen Junior Fiddlers at the family
celebration after the service at our home, a musical weekend honouring a
milestone in a teenager’s life was made complete.
Another highlight for us in church life was appearing on Day 215 of the Fiddle
Tune Video Library on Facebook: The 365 Days of Fiddlers. For this to happen,
the Hamre Lutheran Church is raising money to purchase a new piano. We had a
test piano from a Bergen piano shop placed in the church for a test run for one
service, one wedding and one concert. The fundraising concert happened on
Thursday, July 25th where I played piano and sang some songs by
myself and with the audience. Our daughters, Hannah Moira and Ingrid Sofie, brought
hardanger fiddles and standard fiddles to play in this concert as well.
The girls learned a tune from my July 2019 music book release titled “All of
Mine-Volume 1,” a collection of 60 original fiddle tunes, available at
www.trentbruner.com. I composed a two
step called “Marthe and Anders’ Wedding” for Marthe Kristine Østerud Bjerke, a
former pastor on the Island of Osterøy and Anders Primstad who got married on
August 3rd, 2019. Marthe served the Osterøy and Arna districts from
August 2018-March 2019 before she and her husband accepted church postings in
Stavanger and will be active in their congregations as well as their married
life together. The video of the two step was recorded during this fundraising
concert for posting on Facebook. The link is as follows:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/179483679364853/?multi_permalinks=396373481009204&comment_id=401479237165295¬if_id=1564767967177971¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic
The next article will feature my times at the 22nd annual John
Arcand Fiddle Fest 2019 from August 8-10, 2019. Check the earlier video links I
have with other fiddlers playing tunes from this three day event on my Facebook artist page. Until next
time, see you somewhere down the fiddle trail!
Musically yours, Trent
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