Thorwald Jorgensen – short interview for Theremin Today

We have taken a short interview for you with a wonderful Dutch thereminist, participant of the Theremin Today festival and Theremin Today project, Thorwald Jorgensen

Dear Thorwald, please tell us about your upcoming concert plans?

Concerts for the next few years are again arranged (very happy about that because I was afraid after COVID things would be slow!). There are some amazing projects one of them being the soloist in a newly written theremin concerto accompanied by the orchestre metropolitan in Montreal, Canada! For now my first concert will be in Split, Croatia where I will be playing pieces for theremin and string quartet.

Thorwald JorgensenWe saw that you recently performed in Rio de Janeiro, congratulations! Please tell us about your impressions. What do you think about the combination of theremin and harp? Did you like the city?

Playing in rio was great! I was invited as classical Thereminist but most of the concerts I improvised completely, which was amazing! I also very much like the vibe of the people there, very different then the European audiences

Please tell me about Lera Auerbach Preludes. What does this music mean to you? Why is it special for the theremin?

The Auerbach preludes are very interesting! I recorded all of them with my pianist Kamilla Bystrova on our album “Air Electrique” and we both are very happy with the result (as was Lera auerbach 🙂 ). All preludes are in the first place abstract but we managed to find our story within all of them! For instance; prelude 7 is about the corruption of the human soul, when one is born all is clean and beautiful (which you hear in the first section), then the melodie gets repeated again in a different register but the accompaniment is already getting weirder, again the same melodie with a weird vibrato and even weirder piano notes which leads eventually in the total demise of the persons soul! If you listen to this music it is so clear that you can even see it if you close your eyes! For alle the others we have similar ideas and backstories so it makes a suite with very interesting (and beautiful) music! And of course it is interesting because of the fact that it is original music for theremin by a world renowned composer, it should be heard by everybody!

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Peter Theremin thereminist, Theremin Today header, great-grandson of Leon Theremin