Ellen Andrea Wang og Kvindelige Studenters Sangforening «Magnificat»

"I have had a dream and a desire to write a choral work for female voices and double bass! Where the deep bass tones merge with the light vocal voices "says bassist Ellen Andrea Wang.

Being an AiR during Moldejazz, just such an opportunity opened, and I called conductor Marit Tøndel Bodsberg to launch the idea and hear if this could be something for KSS and she said "YESS, we have to make it happen". And suddenly we were walking!

"My soul exalts the Lord" is the beginning of the Latin text of Mary's hymn, which she breaks out after the archangel Gabriel has announced the birth of Jesus. The Magnificat is from the Gospel of Luke. When Mary sings, it is therefore in the joy of the mother's skull - in the joy of being designated to be pregnant with God herself - of being able to weave him into the family through her mother's life and be the gate that God himself would go through to come the creature close. Mary is thus, especially according to Catholic theology, the very icon of the church.

Throughout music history, there are many composers who have set the tone for Mary's praise, and there are remarkably few female composers who have written music for the text, even though the theme is about a woman's birth and her encounter by carrying a child. I myself recently became a mother and found it wonderful and overwhelming to carry a child. In the process, I have linked some of my own life experiences in text and music to create a more universal perspective to give it all a fresh breath.

Ellen Andrea Wang - double bass, vocals and compositions

Female Students' Singing Association (KSS) - choir

Hanna Paulsberg - saxophone

Tone Muskja - live visuals

Tone Myskja is this year's festival exhibitor during Moldejazz 2021. In addition to the exhibition at MRKS, she will contribute with live video performance to the opening concert with the Double Bass Orchestra in Bjørnsonhuset and the closing concert with Ellen Andrea Wang and Kvindelige Studenters Sangforening in Molde Cathedral on Saturday 24 July.

Tone Myskja (b. 1961) is a Norwegian artist who works with video as a visual and sculptural element through exhibitions, concerts and stage performances. She has a musical approach to working with art/video and composes complex and complex videos and installations. Her work exists between different artistic disciplines, based on her interest in music, dance, theater, literature, painting and sculpture.

Thematically, the art relates to complexity in relation to language, perception and identity, and how these aspects are affected by the time and the space one is in.