THE GOSPEL OF MARY: Århus Sinfonietta

Frederiksberg Kirke

14/6 2022, 20:00

Frederiksberg Allé 71
1820 Frederiksberg

Free entrance

It is time for gender struggle in the church when the award-winning Icelandic composer Hugi Guðmundsson attempts to write the woman back into the history of Christianity with his oratorio The Gospel of Mary. The work is based on a forgotten gospel, which was discovered in 1896, and which is said to have been written down by Mary Magdalene herself: The woman, the apostle of the apostles, who was the first to preach the teachings of Jesus, but who for many years was unfairly remembered exclusively as a prostitute. The Gospel of Mary is thus nothing less than a critique of the patriarchal dogma of the institutionalized church, and an attempt to remedy 2000 years of systematic repression of the significance of women for the development of Christianity. The Gospel of Mary is performed by the Danish ensemble Århus Sinfonietta, which is accompanied by the distinguished Icelandic conductor Hörður Ákselsson, the Norwegian soprano soloist Berit Norbakken, and the Icelandic chamber choir Schola Cantorum. In this way, the concert is not only an exciting musical contribution to a timely gender debate – it is also an admirable example of the fruitfulness of transnational, artistic collaboration.

Free admission

Programme

Hugi Guðmundsson: The Gospel of Mary

Libretto by Nila Parly and Niels Brunse.

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The concert is made in collaboration with Frederiksbergs Kirke.
The project is supportet by Statens Kunstfonds Legat- og Projektstøtteudvalg for Musik, Aarhus Kommunes Musikpulje, Nordisk Kulturkontakt, William Demant Fonden and A. P. Møller Fonden.

Artists

Hörður Áskelsson

Berit Norbakken

Århus Sinfonietta

Schola Cantorum (IS)