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"Plans for presentation 9 years in the works" Swedish composer Tommie Haglund will make his North American debut, appearing with a New York City quartet Nov. 2 to present his music at Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn. Plans for Haglund’s musical presentation began nine years ago when he contacted Siri Hurst, then a teacher at the Academy of the New Church Secondary Schools in Bryn Athyn and later events coordinator for Glencairn Museum. Glencairn is affiliated with the General Church of the New Jerusalem (New Church), founded by Swedish scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg whose writings inspired several of Haglund’s compositions. Two of those will be among the work to be presented by New York City’s Rose String Quartet at 3 p.m. in the museum’s Great Hall. Haglund and Hurst kept in touch, hoping to collaborate in presenting the composer’s music in Bryn Athyn. Haglund visited the Swedenborgian community in 2001 and spoke at the Bryn Athyn College of the New Church. And he and Hurst, who had retired from her official role at Glencairn, continued to plan for his musical debut. Hurst had shared this dream with her assistant, Reuben Bell, now Glencairn’s Events and Public Relations Coordinator, who continued to work with Hurst to bring Haglund and his music together in Bryn Athyn. It’s fitting, said Bell, that Glencairn will be the setting when Haglund personally presents his music for the first time in North America. Glencairn is the only museum in the world affiliated with the church whose founder so inspired Haglund’s music. While Glencairn focuses on New Church art, said Bell, its concentration has been on the visual arts. This is the first time it will focus on a new form of New Church art – music. The plan came together when Glencairn earned a grant from Beneficia, a New Church foundation, to bring Haglund to the U.S. and to hire musicians to present his work. Hurst served as liaison and, after interviewing music groups from New York, Philadelphia and the United Kingdom, selected the Rose String Quartet which will spend a couple days later this month rehearsing at the Julliard School in New York City under Haglund’s watchful eye. The quartet, featuring Cyrus Beroukhim and Hayley Wolfe on violin, James Hogg on viola, Arash Amini on cello and Kurt Muroki on bass, will present two of Haglund’s compositions, “Land of Souls,” and “Acedia,” as well as Beethoven’s Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4. Haglund’s work, described as “dramatic and intense modern classical music,” has been called “music to pull you into the spirit,” and “music to expand your soul,” said Bell. Haglund, 44, began composing at the age of 11. He studied the classical guitar at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark and took private lessons in London with the British guitarist John Mills, who introduced him to the music of Frederick Delius. That is said to have been the turning point in Haglund’s musical life and led to contact with Eric Fenby who had been Delius’s amanuensis from 1928-34, and taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Haglund studied with Fenby, but also was influenced by his contact with Sven-Erik Johansson, one of Sweden’s most original 20th century composers. In 1988, Haglund produced “Intensio Animi,” a work commissioned for a concert at the Stockholm Concert Hall in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of Swedenborg’s birth. Commissions followed from Vienna, the Swedish Radio, Symphony Orchestras, for His Majesty the King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 50th birthday, solo works, chamber music, and a cello concerto which premiered in May 2001. Haglund also was commissioned to produce work for the Medici Quartet
and a work to celebrate the 700th birthday this year of Saint Birgitta,
chief patron of Europe.
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