Trio Mediæval & Catalina Vicens, organetto

A Northern Heritage

The celebration of Yule in Northern Europe harks back to a transition from ancient Pagan Germanic culture to the more formal spirituality of the newer Christian rite. Christmas, as we mostly now call it, gave us hymns, processions and chants; Yule meant a vibrant pre-Christian secularity, with feasting and dancing, decorating the house with holly, ivy and mistletoe as a tribute to the gods of earth and air. We now happily enjoy fusing elements of both traditions into the Christmas we know today. Much of the music in this program dates from an earlier time when churches may have been decorated with Christmas greenery, and carols sung round a burning Yule log.   

There’s no knowing how the earliest Christmas songs were created, but the first ones must have been passed on orally until someone wrote them down. Writing, then later printing, set the songs free, and some travelled all over Europe, adopted by singers who then made their own versions. New songs were made, but many ancient ones survived the centuries, each new performer passing on their own memories of a song to the next generation. Alongside this oral tradition more formal manuscript collections were created in church and cloister as clerics composed new chants for their own communities. These historical processes are intertwined throughout this program, which is very much a product of the Trio Mediæval aesthetic; there are medieval compositions from England and arrangements of North European music by Tone Krohn and by the Trio themselves. 

There is a special focus on the Norwegian folk tradition (Josefines julesalme, Lussinatti lange, Frå Betlehem eit gjetord gjeng) and the less well-known Christmas hymns of the Swedish-speaking communities in Ukraine (En jungfru födde ett barn idag) and Estonia (In dulci jubilo, En stjärna gick på himlen fram, Världens frälsare kom här) which was ruled by Sweden for some 400 years until the early 18th century. There were still Swedish speakers in Estonian coastal communities in the early 20th century, when composer and folksong collector Cyrillus Kreek and his Swedish contemporary Olof Andersson collected many old melodies that might otherwise have been forgotten, such as those from Nuckö and Stora Rågö. Derived both from the Lutheran Hymnal and old secular songs, the hymn tunes were originally sung heterophonically – everyone singing freely together, the more skilful singers varying and ornamenting the melody. Both these and the traditional carols existed simply as tunes and texts, which offer a perfect template for colourful contemporary arrangements, giving a new focus to an oral tradition that stretches way back into the past.

The original inspiration for Trio Mediæval dates from Linn Andrea Fuglseth’s revelatory encounter with English medieval carols while a student in London at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and the Trio has had a close connection with English music ever since. There are five 15th century English compositions in this program, including Linn Andrea’s own arrangement of the Coventry Carol. The German-speaking countries, well-springs of many Christmas songs that found their way Northwards, sit alongside these in arrangements by Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Anna Maria Friman.  Between the carols, and sometimes weaving improvisations within them, is the organetto of Catalina Vicens. This exquisite instrument, powered by one hand and played by the other, was the instrument of choice for many of those composers who sang the first Christmas carols.  

– John Potter

Hailed as a “fascinating journey with music of timeless beauty”, Trio Mediæval’s highly acclaimed first disc “Words of the Angel” (2001) launched the group into the elite circles of early music ensembles and introduced them to a broad international audience.

Formed in 1997, Trio Mediæval consists of founder members Linn Andrea Fuglseth and Anna Maria Friman, and Jorunn Lovise Husan who joined the group in 2018.

A typical Trio Mediæval programme combines their many varied strands of musical exploration: historically informed performance of medieval sacred music, folk music (adapted and arranged by members of the group); contemporary Nordic jazz; specially commissioned works; improvisation with or without instruments. Attracted by the Grammy nominated trio’s unique sound, composers and performers have stood in line to work with the group, resulting in commissions and premieres of works by Helena Tulve, Tõnu Kõrvits, Anders Jormin, Tord Gustavsen, Mats Eilertsen, Trygve Seim, Anna Clyne, Gavin Bryars, Ivan Moody, Sungji Hong and Andrew Smith, among many others. A 2005 collaboration with the Ensemble Musikfabrik in Cologne featured the work Shelter by Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon and David Lang of the New York-based Bang on a Can composers’ collective. More recently the trio has collaborated with musicians and orchestras such as Arve Henriksen, John Potter, Sinikka Langeland Ensemble, Mats Eilertsen Trio, Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

Trio Mediæval has toured extensively in Europe and USA, and has visited Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, and most recently, Australia. The trio has been invited to appear on the most prestigious stages in the world, including Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Vienna Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. After releasing seven recordings on ECM Records between 2001 and 2017, the trio began a collaboration with Morten Lindberg and the 2L label in Norway, with new releases planned for 2021 and 2022.

Praised by the international press as one of the most interesting musicians in the field of early music, Catalina Vicens’ dynamism and approach to historically informed performance and musicological research has led her to become one of the most versatile and sought-after historical keyboard performers and teachers of her generation.

Having specialized in performing on antique keyboard instruments (ranging from the 15th to the early 19th centuries), she has been invited to play on the oldest playable harpsichord in the world, featured in her recording “Il Cembalo di Partenope” (Diapason d’Or); the 15th-century gothic organ of St. Andreas in Ostönnen (one of the oldest and best-preserved organs in the world), as well as in a large number of prestigious collections in the UK, Europe, Japan and USA. She is also recognized for her work with medieval and renaissance keyboards, working alongside specialized instrument builders in the ‘reconstruction’ of new prototypes based on historical sources, and for her work alongside composers to give a new life to historical instruments. 

In 2021, Vicens has been named curator of the Tagliavini Collection in Italy, one of the largest historical keyboard collections in Europe, and artistic director of Museo San Colombano in Bologna, as successor of the late Liuwe Tamminga, one of the leading experts of the Italian organ repertoire together with Maestro Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini.

Catalina is also harpsichord/research lecturer at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (Belgium). She has been invited as Visting Professor of Harpsichord at Oberlin Conservatory (USA) and to teach master-classes at the Longy School of Music Cambridge, the Flint Antique Harpsichords Collection (USA), the Horniman Museum (UK), the Universität der Künste Berlin and the Folkwang Universität der Künste Essen (Germany), and teaches regularly at the Early Music Academy in Lunenburg (Canada), Early Music Course at Burg Fürsteneck and the International Portative Organ Festival (Germany), which she curates since 2011. She’s been invited as jury member at the Jurow International Harpsichord Competition, Mechelen Harpsichord Competition , the Dulwich Historical Keyboard Competition and the Wanda Landowska Competition Poznań. 

Vicens performs and records regularly as a member of ensembles of medieval, renaissance, baroque and contemporary music in Europe, North America. In 2013 she founded ensemble Servir Antico, with whom she aims to shed light on the less-known repertoire and intellectual heritage of the humanistic period (13th-16th century) while using the concert stage to share with the audience the voices of these visionaries of the past, but also committed to using it for amplifying new voices. 

Catalina Vicens, a native of Chile, started her international career at an early age. By age 20 she had already played in the main concert-halls of more than ten countries in North and South America, including the Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires Argentina,  the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and the Teatro Municipal do São Paulo. She studied modern piano at the Instituto de Música de la P. Universidad Católica de Chile, harpsichord at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, at the Musikhochschule Freiburg, and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as well as medieval keyboards in the latter, and contemporary music performance at the Musik Akademie Basel. She is Ph.D. candidate at Leiden University / Orpheus Institute Ghent.

For the last twenty-five years Friman has been working as a freelance singer both in chamber music ensembles and as a soloist with choirs and orchestras (such as the Gavin Bryars Ensemble, Hille Perl & Sirius Viols, Göteborg Baroque, Ensemble Serikon, Latvian Radio Choir, Ricercar Consort and Stuttgart Bach Orchestra). In 2018 she started Friman-Ambrosini-Vicens trio with Marco Ambrosini (nyckelharpa) and Catalina Vicens (organetto) and in 2020 the Swedish group Renaissance AND with Nora Roll (viola da gamba) and Dohyo Sol (lute) was founded. Most of her ensemble engagements over the last fifteen years have included performers from different musical styles, crossing borders between folk, improvisation, contemporary, medieval and renaissance music. 

With her regular groups Trio Mediæval and Alternative History Quartet she has performed and given radio broadcasts throughout Europe, USA, Mexico, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Australia, and since 2001 she has recorded 11 albums for ECM Records. In 2010 Friman completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Music at the University of York, UK where she researched the modern performance of medieval music by women. For five years she taught singing and coached vocal ensembles at the University of York, and further through the years she has very much enjoyed giving vocal masterclasses and ensemble workshops at different academic institutions in Europe and USA, teaching at summer courses as well as coaching individual groups. From 2001 – 2015 she was a jury member at the vocal ensemble competition the Tampere International Choral Festival in Finland. Friman teaches at the Master’s programme in Choral Conducting at the Academy of Music & Drama in Göteborg, Sweden. 

Linn Andrea Fuglseth was born in Sandefjord, Norway in 1969. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London 1994-1995, receiving a diploma in Advanced Solo Studies in Early Music.

She completed her Masters Degree in vocal performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 1997, specializing in baroque interpretation and writing a dissertation on the Restoration Mad Songs. In October 1997 she founded Trio Mediæval.

Fuglseth’s solo engagements include performances with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Baroque Orchestra, Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and Rolf Lislevand. She is a member of the folk music ensemble Østfolk, touring with school concerts in Norway. Fuglseth started, and has since 2004 conducted  Bolteløkka Jentekor in Oslo, a school choir for girls aged 6-16. For this work she was awarded a culture prize in Bydel St Hanshaugen Oslo in 2011 and the Childrens’ Choir Conductor of the year by Ung i Kor Norway in 2015. In 2007 Fuglseth received a Government Grant for Artists for a period of three years. Fuglseth writes vocal arrangements of folk songs, and is being published by Musikk-Husets Forlag AS, Norway.

Jorunn Lovise Husan joined the Trio Mediaeval in June 2018 (replacing Berit Opheim). Husan has an extensive experience as an ensemble singer and chamber music performer. She is a member of the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir and was for many years singing with the Oslo Chamber Choir and the renowned Norwegian vocal sextet Pust, that specializes in their own compositions and arrangements inspired by ballads, jazz and folk music. Her interest in folk – and contemporary music resulted in a Masters degree in vocal performance at the Norwegian Academy of Music (2010) where she specialized in the art of interpretation of folk music elements in Norwegian contemporary music.

In addition to her solo appearances touring with contemporary music ensembles such as BIT20 Ensemble and premiering Marcus Paus opera “Heksene”, she regularly performs alto solo parts from the main church music repertoire and has performed with conductors such as Grete Pedersen, Andrew Manze og Sirkka-Liisa Kaakinen-Pilch. Jorunn Lovise Husan is originally from Rennebu, but lives in Stavanger where she teaches singing at Stavanger Katedralskole and conducts the Stavanger Cathedral Girls’ Choir.