Season 2023-2024 The music & me

Get to know Jens Kristian Søgaard, trombonist in the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, his thoughts on the music and what he is looking forward to the most in the 2023-2024 season.

My favourite piece

I am very much looking forward to playing Richard Strauss’ Alps Symphony. He writes so beautifully for the trombone, it is challenging and very expressive. He describes nature and weather. The trombone can be both beautiful and calm, fiery and dramatic.

He writes about the views from the mountaintops that take your breath away. Strauss was a poet of nature, but he also tried to describe the divine. He understood that man is only a small part in a great whole.

The music and the time

If you play Mozart’s music the way he originally wrote it, it doesn’t sound the same today. A development in music is absolutely necessary. But the starting point about the orchestra is the same. That everyone contributes to a whole that is greater than the parts. You have your place and it is important.

Many people think that classical music is difficult, but I have the impression that many young people listen to classical music. It has never been as easily accessible as today. I think we are facing a revival of classical music.

The feeling of learning something where you have to put in a lot of work, it is important as a human. I think that insight is on its way back.

My instrument

The trombones I like best are 50-60 years old. There is a soul in them. The metal has been refined by being used. It means something that a lot of tones are blown through the instrument. For a new trombone, it takes a long time to get good.

Trombones are made of brass with more or less elements of copper in it. It colors the front piece of the instrument reddish. It can feel warmer in timbre with coppers, but it also depends on how you play. I have quite a lot of copper in mine.

I started playing the trombone as a child when there was no trombone in the orchestra at the local music school. My arms were just long enough to reach. But the big thing was getting to play in an orchestra. To be part of a context, to feel a sense of team.


Kontrabasisten Jenny Rydeberg spelar på sitt instrument i ett rött sammetsrum

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