Jānis Mediņš Daina 14

I'm not sure how old I was when I first heard this piece played by Canadian-Latvian pianist, Arturs Ozolins...in my teens, I think. I loved it so much then, and I still do. One of the set of 24 "Dainas" by Latvian composer Jānis Mediņš, which I am making my way through. This #14 continues to be my favourite of all of them, even though there are so many gorgeous pieces in the set.

Jānis Mediņš was born in Riga, Latvia in 1890 and died in 1966 in Sweden. His piano music is richly romantic and capitalizes on the expressive possibilities of the instrument. Dainas are technically folk songs, but these pieces are quite removed from folk music. Still, there is an element of the haunting, deeply-felt lyricism of that genre.

I thought I'd put my iPhone to use today and made a little video of me (well, my hands anyway) playing the piece. The combination of the device and the instrument doesn't quite do it justice, but hopefully it will be enough to give you an idea of how wonderful Jānis Mediņš' music is.

Ready to build my new piano class

Although this recently made poster advertises my teaching in Copenhagen, in fact the decision has been made to re-locate to Toronto. I'll draw up a new version of this very soon: 'NOW ACCEPTING STUDENTS IN THE TORONTO AREA'. 

As well, I am still offering lessons by skype to students anywhere in the world.

A winter walk

We've made it through January!

However the season for hibernation and reflection is not quite over yet. For me it has been a time of drawing inward, examining my life, and creating my new life here in Copenhagen. Step by step.

This piece from my most recent CD (volume 3) is very much in keeping with this theme.  Hope you enjoy it. (please click on the above hyperlink)

Brief update

I had promised to post about my whereabouts & adventures; somehow it has taken a few weeks to get to it.

The idea was to travel to Latvia and stay there for a couple of months working on my Latvian language skills, and practising some new Latvian repertoire...this while waiting to hear from the Danish Embassy regarding my potential residence permit, which as far as I understood could take until the end of November to hear about.  Hah! I arrived in Riga, Latvia on October 3rd and as I was waiting for my luggage I checked my email and there it was! My first minutes in Latvia...and the Danish government is telling me I have a year-long visa to live in Denmark, effective immediately!

Lately, my observation is that although planning seems to be necessary in order to function in life, more often than not what one has planned is not how things turn out...

So, two months in Latvia turned into two weeks, which were lovely. Then, a week in Copenhagen, a week in Dublin to visit my daughter & good friends, then back to Copenhagen. I will be here until the end of November, then back to Canada for December. Then January back in Copenhagen for real.

Joyous adventures.

So, contact info is still by email mogenpianist at gmail dot com, by phone in Denmark at +45 28 42 33 22, by phone in Canada at 519 275 7664. (Actually I get calls & voice mail at this number even when I'm not in Canada.) And, there's always facebook. Stay in touch!

Welcome to sandramogensen.com's new look!

Lots of changes going on for mogenpianist this year!

To reflect that, sandramogensen.com is being revamped quite a bit...in the meantime, take a look around here at the mogenpianist blog, and stay tuned...

To contact me, please go to https://www.facebook.com/mogenpianist, or email me at mogenpianist at gmail dot com or call 519275song.

Thanks so much!

4th & final "4@4"

A happy audience!

I'm quite glad to have done this little "4@4" house concert project this month. I've enjoyed it and have felt some warm support and lovely response from my audiences. This Sunday (March 25, 2012) is not only the final concert of the series, but in fact is also the final concert on the piano I have owned for the past nearly twenty years and the final concert in this house. Mogenpianist is making a move, a shift, and it involves selling both home and piano and a whole lot more! It's all good and quite exciting.

Stay tuned to see how the next chapter unfolds.  In the mean time, perhaps you can make it this Sunday to hear some of the repertoire from my upcoming Volume 3 release or perhaps we'll cross paths in other ways.  Many thanks to all who are part of my support team for my latest recording project!

Merch???

When I released my first solo CD back in 2007, I was quite excited about having a "product" that people could actually buy and take home. Throughout my entire career up until then, I had only "services" on offer. Not that those services are anything to sneeze at: performances, teaching, coaching, adjudicating, giving workshops, etc. But none of these can be held in your hand.

Now, it turns out the recordings that people purchase aren't always in a tangible hold-it-in-your-hand format anymore after all what with all the other formats available. (see previous post regarding survey results) But I still get a kick out of taking a stack of CDs to an actual store or sending them in the mail to the purchaser (well actually, my "Mail Order Dept."/Mom does that) - the novelty of doing this has not worn off.

So, maybe I should be getting into selling "merch" as well? I don't think I'm quite up for selling t-shirts at this point, but you never know.  The following is the closest I get to offering Sandra Mogensen/Edvard Grieg merchandise: as a thank you for a $10 donation to the Volume 3 recording project, I am offering some very swell "Rainbow-Grieg Fridge Magnets". (donations can be made by clicking the "donate" button on the right side of this page) I had these magnets available for previous projects and still come across them now and then in people's homes, so here they are again; designed by my daughter. You must admit, as fridge magnets go, they are pretty lovely...