We look forward to welcoming Ensemble MidtVest back to Esbjerg with a broad program featuring some of chamber music's finest composers.
Ensemble MidtVest is based primarily at the HEART art museum and creates exciting musical experiences in the tension between traditional chamber concerts and innovative outreach formats.

Guest Concert With Ensemble Midwest

Southern Denmark Conservatory of Music

When we talk about messages in classical music, one of the most touching stories quickly comes to mind: the love affair – and love triangle – between Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

Seasonal theme: Messages

Royal Academy of Music Aarhus

Herning Church

Holstebro Kunstmuseum

Danish National Academy of Music

This event is a Musikken På Vrangen (MPV), where the musicians present some of the works that will be played at the "real" concerts in the following days. We hope that this preview will make you want to hear the whole concert.

The Music on the Wrong Side: Messages

Herning Library

The music takes us around the world to this very special concert with both a brand new premiere and with the young pianist star Valdemar Wenzel Most, who is once again a guest of the Esbjerg Ensemble. 

From Eastern Europe, we will listen to a Romanian rhapsody by Enescu, who himself was a legendary composer and virtuoso musician on both violin and piano. 

Russian Shostakovich's work was composed when he was just 16 years old, and compared to his later works, it also sounds very much like the romantic style from the previous century.  

Sunset In The East And West

Lil Lacy's flute concerto, written for the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra's long-time flautist, Thomas Jensen, is a work that celebrates life experience and the eternal change we as humans go through.


For Lil Lacy, this work has been a human and artistic journey. “I feel enormous gratitude,” she says. “Firstly, for having been given the opportunity to write a flute concerto, but also for the curiosity and openness with which Thomas has met me. The ongoing dialogue and exchange we have had around the work has been deeply inspiring and has opened up unique layers of sensuality, details and nuances in the music.” Lil Lacy and Thomas Jensen have had a collaboration based on mutual inspiration. From their very first conversations, it was clear that the work should bear the hallmark of a life story – a musical interpretation of the many phases a person goes through from before birth, to childhood, adolescence, adulthood and to a reflection on life. “I didn’t know from the beginning that it would be about life experience. However, this theme arose quite naturally in our conversations, as Thomas has such a rich career and is so curious about so many different musical genres and expressions. Being able to lean into a great life experience, both humanly and artistically, is something that creates perspective and possibilities. For me as a newer composer, it is a great gift to work with such a generous and trusting musician – and human being,” says Lil Lacy. For Thomas Jensen, the work has a deep personal meaning. With a long career behind him, where he has worked with Lil Lacy’s parents, jazz pianist Butch Lacy and singer Birgitte Frieboe, among other things, the collaboration feels almost destined.

World premiere: Thomas Jensen plays Lil Lacy's flute concerto

Alsion Concert Hall

Ribe Cathedral

Felix Mendelssohn was only 14 years old when he wrote his first concerto for two pianos, and the soloists at the premiere were the young Felix himself and his four-year-old sister Fanny. Although it is a youthful work, the concerto contains plenty of charm and brilliant virtuosity, and in the DR Koncerthuset it is once again a pair of siblings sitting at the pianos, namely the world-famous Jussen brothers from Holland.

EPSG:4326

Collon & Jussen brothers

DR Koncerthuset

A Hero’s Life

Gichi-ziibi Center for the Arts

Experience the reenactment of this performative work that recreates and interprets the Scandinavian Congress Center through music for choir and strings. The work explores the relationship between concrete materials and our inner sense of connection to something greater.

Concert for a Space and Time - site-specific work for choir and strings // Aarhus Sinfonietta X Lil Lacy

Aarhus Congress Center

### Event Description: A Hero’s Life - Lakes Area Music Festival

**Event Title:** A Hero’s Life

**Dates:** Saturday, August 17 - Sunday, August 18, 2024

**Venue:** Gichi-ziibi Center for the Arts, 702 S 5th St, Brainerd, MN 56401

**Event Overview:**
The Lakes Area Music Festival proudly presents its grand closing ceremony for 2024, featuring an extraordinary musical journey that promises to captivate and inspire. The event will open with the unrivaled brilliance of Gustav Holst’s "Jupiter" from *The Planets*, setting a majestic tone for the evening. This will be followed by the U.S. premiere of Lil Lacy’s *Aurora*, a piece that honors new beginnings and the opportunities each new day brings. The evening will culminate with Richard Strauss’ *Ein Heldenleben* (A Hero’s Life), a powerful narrative of adventure and accomplishment, performed by the largest ensemble ever to grace the LAMF stage, consisting of 97 musicians.

**Program Highlights:**
- **Gustav Holst’s "Jupiter" from *The Planets***
  - A movement from Holst’s renowned suite, named after the planets in the solar system and their astrological significance.
- **Lil Lacy’s *Aurora***
  - U.S. premiere of a piece that symbolizes new beginnings, inspired by the Roman Goddess of dawn.
- **Richard Strauss’ *Ein Heldenleben* (A Hero’s Life)**
  - A monumental work that requires a large orchestra, telling the ultimate story of a hero’s journey.

**Additional Information:**
- **Ticket Services:** The Orchestra Hall Box Office is pleased to provide ticket services for the Lakes Area Music Festival. Please note that the Minnesota Orchestra does not perform in this program.
- **Important Notice:** All artists, programs, prices, dates, and times are subject to change. All sales are final with no refunds.

**Tickets:** [Buy Tickets](#)

**More Information:** For further details, please visit the [Lakes Area Music Festival website](#).

Join us for an unforgettable evening of music that celebrates the grandeur of a hero’s life and the promise of new beginnings.

When a composer and an orchestra work closely together over several years, a unique musical symbiosis arises. Lil Lacy is the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra's resident artist from 2024-2027, and her musical collaboration with the orchestra contains a depth that can only arise through mutual inspiration and time for reflection.

Portrait concert by Lil Lacy

Harmony Cultural Center, Haderslev

This is the closing concert of the Nørre Vosborg Chamber Music Festival.
We would like to thank you for a wonderful festival and invite you to coffee and cake during the break.

Lil Lacy

Events

Upcoming events

11 - 12 Jun, 2026

Portrait concert by Lil Lacy · Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester

Jun 28, 2026

Nørre Vosborg: Closing concert · Ensemble MidtVest

Aug 15, 2026

Together in dreams · Musikhuset Aarhus

Past events

May 12, 2026

Guest Concert With Ensemble Midwest · Esbjerg Ensemble

6 - 12 May, 2026

Seasonal theme: Messages · Ensemble MidtVest

About

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