Thus a Piano Garden

Thus a Piano Garden is a solo piano piece that Olga Witte has written especially for this occasion.

In this work, Olga Witte explores her imaginary garden of desires. She explores the garden’s parts and its wholeness in various ways; she experiences the garden as if she were the wind blowing through it, as if she were insects moving about, flying or walking amongst the plants, as if she were a person in need of specific medicinal plants. This is translated into musical expressions both within and outside the piano. She examines certain plants through specific sensory, biological, mathematical or historical lenses. For example, the scent of yarrow, the propagation of knapweed via awns, the root system of meadow saxifrage, and the differences between bluebell, devil’s-bit and dove’s-foot. The information that Witte gathers, analyses and selects is transformed through various processes and translations into compositional sketches, which she interprets during the concert itself on Annea Lockwood’s piano, which is already undergoing a transformation of its own.

Olga Witte is a soloist-trained composer, jazz pianist, church organist and music ethnologist. Her music integrates experimental jazz, contemporary composition and elements of Balinese gamelan. She has released several critically acclaimed albums and has been honoured with Denmark’s oldest jazz award, the Gaffel Prize 2023.