Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Saturday, 3 September 2011

Finally made another video... :)

Hi there,
Finally figured out how to use iMovie on my iPad - great stuff! And quite easy.... Here comes first video. It's from my tour with pianist Håvard Gimse February 2011.
Enjoy :)

Tine


YouTube Video

- Tine Thing Helseth 2011 -

Friday, 5 August 2011

We will never be the same

There are those moments were you just know that the world will never be the same. Something happens that makes you think that there is no thing more precious than life itself. I love what I do - but without life I couldn't do it. Without life I wouldn't be here.
Friday the 22nd of July started out as a normal day. I woke up in Liverpool, pretty tired after three long and amazing days of recording, and had rehearsal with the Liverpool Phil and Carl Davis for a concert the next day. Just when I get off stage I feel my phone vibrating in my handbag, I ignore it. It rings again and I check the caller ID, my mother, I ignore it again thinking I can call her back when I get to the hotel. She call a third time, and I answer - the first thing she says is that there's been a bomb in Oslo. I think she must be joking, she has too, this can't be happening. I turn on the TV as soon as I come to my room and the pictures on SkyNews live from Oslo are just unbelievable. This isn't my city, my home, this can't be happening in Oslo - the city of peace. My mother calls again, and she assures me that all my friends are safe - good. I talk to her for a long time.
That evening I've got tickets for Harry Potter, the last film. I'm a huge fan of the books, but seeing the world collapsing on screen on a day like this? I meet up with someone from the orchestra and we go together. Everyone has heard about the bomb. My mum calls again - there is a guy shooting at the labour party's youth camp at an island. This can't be happening. I watch the movie. It's really amazing (I have to watch it again, my head wasn't there the whole time...) and I go to bed. I wake up the next morning,for a couple of minutes I'm happy - then I remember. The bomb. The shooting. I call my mother. Almost 90 people dead. Murdered. Young people. It's a bit too much, and I'm so far away. I go for a walk, every front page of every newspaper has pictures from Oslo. I decide to focus on the concert that evening. I dedicate one of the songs I play to the victims and their families and I play with a black ribbon.
Next day on the plane, the tears comes.

Monday is a strange day. Out on the streets people care for each other, even though we are total strangers. You feel the love. Around 5pm I get a phone call - two hours later I play for over 200 000 people in front of the city hall. All there to pay respect, to show the man who did this that we are stronger together, to say that we love each other no matter religion or skin color. It's like I'm not there. When I play the very opening of my piece, solo trumpet before the piano joins me, everyone lifts the roses they have in their hands. Then I just close my eyes. I'm not there. My voice is, my music is, but I have to be strong. I tell myself I can cry later - right now I have to forget I'm there and just play. It's definitely one of the strongest and most special moments in my life. I feel privileged to have felt, seen and tasted air full of so many emotions - most of all love.




There are so many other amazing things I want to tell you all about from the last month. And I will. I just needed this entry for these emotions. I'm lucky, I didn't personally know anyone who died, but I know people who did. Norway is a small country, not so many people, we are all affected by this.

We will never be the same after 22nd of July 2011.

Love,
Tine


- Tine Thing Helseth 2011 -

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

tenThing at the mall

Just wanted to share this short video with you. From a festival in Kongsberg in Norway in January ;)

YouTube Video

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Back on the road

Blog entry 21st of June 2011

I love meeting people I know at airports! Today I met two amazing musicians at Gardermoen. While checking in, the great jazz trumpeter Mathias Eick calls my name from the line next to me. On his way to LA to play :) His record The Door is truly amazing - I highly recommend it! Always nice to bump into Mathias (this is not the first time!) always smiling - even when he discovered that I could skip the incredibly long line at security and use the fast track...
Arriving in the SAS lounge, working on my iPad and waiting for my flight to start boarding - who other than Arve Tellefsen walks in! Great Norwegian violinist, has been around forever. He was one of the first to "discover" me, I think I was 16 years old the first time he invited me to play at his two festivals in Norway. He might be in his seventies, but he is so full of youth and spirit that you wouldn't notice. He and his violin was on their way to Alicante - I got instantly jealous, will imagine it's a tiny bit warmer there than in Glasgow (which is were I'm heading today).

So much has happened lately. May was full of concerts, and I truly had some wonderful musical experiences that month! Another thing that happened was that my best friend since I was 6 years old, Dagrun, got married. The horrible thing - I couldn't be there... I played an important concert that day and couldn't cancel.So what I did, was that I arranged all the music for the ceremony and made a video greeting/speech with a lot of pictures from we were kids :) I'm really sad I missed it, but I know that they both knew my heart was there with them. I wish them all the best in the world!

Sometimes it's hard to know how to make all your different aspect of life go together, but usually it works out in the end.
Tine :)

PS: me and Dagrun 11 years old





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Friday, 20 May 2011

I'm an EMI Classics Artist :)

Blog entry 20th of May 2011

We have to stop meeting like this...
You can only guess were I am right now. That's right - up in the sky! I've just answered 13 emails and gone through my itinerary for the next 12 days, when I remembered that I hadn't written that blog entry about my EMI signing that I've been wanting to do for some weeks now.




19th of April was a truly exciting day for me. I flew over to London in the morning, checked in to my hotel in Kensington, went for some express stress-relaxing shopping, walked around one of my favorite neighborhoods in London (behind Royal Albert Hall) and tried to really enjoy and memorize everything so that I can think back on this day when I get old, and then - at 6pm - I entered the great EMI building. And from that on everything became very overwhelming. So many enthusiastic and happy people cheering, drinking champagne, eating EMI and trumpet muffins. Eric (the boss), Andrew (the A&R), Ed (my manager) and myself signed the contract - huge moment for me.
After the big gathering were I got to meet everyone from all the different departments there was a nice dinner with my amazing management team (Kathryn, Ed, Clare and Clare ;)) and some of the EMI Classics people. I can't wait to start working with everyone (well, I've actually already started and it's great!) and look forward to work out some new and exciting artistic concepts and record ideas.

I only have one thing to say - you're allowed to dream - and before you know it, it might just come true!

Yours from the road,
Tine :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

SK841, destination: Zurich

Blog entry 27th of April

'There's no use trying' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things'. (Alice)
'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was younger I did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I love this quote. It's funny, but true. Always believe, always. Your goals in life will never be achieved if you don't believe they will. It's a while since I read the book about Alice, but I always carry with me the Queen's words. At Oslo airport I bought myself a book before boarding the plane, and what a nice surprise that the first words in the book were actually this particular quote! I had to include it in this blog entry ;)

I'm at the moment a big Kurt Weill fan. I've been for quite a while actually, but just bought myself a CD with Anne Sofie von Otter recorded in the early nineties, and wow! What a voice for this music. Listening to it at the moment ;) I could of course go on and on about the music I love and artists I really admire, but let's take one at a time, shall we?

At the end; just a little encouragement to all of you loud talking gentlemen at planes, not everything is meant for everyone to hear...

Ciao,
Tine :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunday, 17 April 2011

On my way home from Brno

Blog entry 16th of April

In the air between Vienna and Oslo

I'm up in the sky again. It's been a lot of that lately... I'm sure I've already told you that I'm supposedly afraid of flying - well, I've just decided to forget all about that. It's no use when you spend so much time up here as I do. Besides, they say that flying is more safe than driving a car so...
Today the weather is perfect, no clouds which means that you can see everything that's happening on the ground as well. Not that I look down, I mean - hello - I'm afraid of heights... There's a lot of thing I'm scared of. But hey, I'm not complaining, that's just life :)

I've had the most amazing week in Brno. Brno is situated only one and a half hour driving from Vienna, and it's the second largest city in the Czech Republic. When I travel I always get a feeling of the city I'm in, if I feel comfortable, safe etc. Brno looks like a miniature version of Vienna and feels warm, welcoming and definitely both safe and comfortable. The orchestra is good, but most importantly the musicians are so generous both with their musicality and friendliness. I can say the same about their Chief conductor Alexandar Markovìc, a joy to work with. Two enjoyable concerts in a nice concert hall (a small version of Musikverein in Vienna, same architect), with a lovely and warm audience - can you ask for anything better?

It's time for my Easter holiday next week. Looking forward to spending time with my mother and little sister, I've been away so much the last month, so good to spend some nice days at home together. Lot of things to be done in our house, so I will try to be as useful as possible... Let's see how that goes!

Just some pictures from Hanover last week:


















Lovely carrot flowers!
And here from Brno:






Not easy to stay awake backstage after a long day... Don't think the Schubert Symphony had anything to do with it...









That was all from up here,
Tine :)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Friday, 8 April 2011

In a car in Germany

Blog entry 8th of April

I just fell asleep in the car. The Finnish singers were talking in Finnish, the car is very comfortable, the sun is shining through the window so it gets warm inside the car - but most importantly it got a bit late last night... woke up by my own snoring (quite embarrassing...)!
I'm in Hannover playing with the wonderful NDR Radiophilharmonie. They have a Norwegian Chief Conductor, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, and he invited us to his apartment after the concert last night. It's so nice after a performance to have some social time with the others. Extra special this week is that they have a visiting Norwegian Concertmaster, so a real Norwegian trio in front - fun ;)

As I were saying we are in the car. New concert tonight, new place but same reportoire. Hummel is a great piece to play. The concert last night was definitely fun, full hall and nice atmosphere, but some concerts I find it hard to focus - last night was one of those. I guess when you play concerts all the time it's hard to have the same concentration and focus in all of them, but I hope that it will feel better tonight. Because that's the thing, even though I might not have complete focus it still goes well (most of the times anyway... :)), it's just that I want to feel good, feel great actually, because there is nothing better than a performance were you just forget everything else and live in the music.

A friend will visit me tonight, always great to have a friendly face among the audience ;)
Including a picture of the Maestro and myself trying to figure out how to take pictures with this iPad.






That's all for now. Will enjoy tonight, try to focus - and at my early flight home tomorrow I will definitely stay awake, snoring among total strangers on a plane that IS embarrassing :)
Tine
.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Saturday, 2 April 2011

Skopje

Blog entry 1st of April

Had the earliest start ever this morning. Pick up time from hotel 2:50 am, I call that in the middle of the night... still alive though, waiting for our flight to Vienna to start boarding. If everything goes as planned I will end up in Flekkefjord, Norway, around 3 o'clock this afternoon. Just have to stop in Vienna, Frankfurt and Stavanger first ;)

But, the reason I'm writing is that I have to tell you about Skopje. I really enjoyed the two days in the capital of Macedonia. Such a nice place with a beautiful old city (our hotel was situated in that part) and so warm and welcoming people in the orchestra! Had an amazing lunch with Roza from the orchestra and the conductor at a great (and very cheap compared to Norway) French restaurant sitting outside in 20 degrees celsius!

Also so nice that one of my very best friends that I've known since we were both 6 years old, Dagrun, could come with me ;)

Here are som pictures:












Boarding now....
Tine ;)
Alexander the Great Airport, Skopje


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Monday, 21 March 2011

Video from Røros


YouTube Video

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Home

Blog entry 21st of March

The sun is shining!! Wonderful ;)
Just finished three hours of press for a new release that I'm part of. The Staff Band of the Norwegian Armed Forces' new CD is full of Nordic music fir wind band. Together with conductor Ole Kristian Ruud I contribute with one trumpet concerto by Jukka Linkola. Great piece! Loved the process and looking forward to performing it, hopefully this autumn ;)

Wednesday last week was my Royal Albert Hall debut - Classic FM Live was a blast! Really enjoyed it. Friday was different but also great! My quartet, TTHQ, played at Studentimpulser in Bergen, and we had the greatest time. Including a video here of my band mates jamming backstage...

YouTube Video

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday, 13 March 2011

Backstage at Grieghallen

It's me again. And quite some extraordinary days in Røros - such an amazing looking place! Lovely to meet up with good musician friends and also to meet new ones ;)







And I also wanted to answer some questions that people ask me a lot (also here at the blog comment section ;) )

My instruments:
Bb trumpet - Bach Stradivarius 37
C trumpet - Yamaha Xeno Chicago
Eb trumpet - Schilke
Piccolo - Yamaha and Schagerl

Mouthpiece:
Bach 1 1/4 C

Thanks for lovely comments about my Carnegie Debut! My last encore was Libertango by Astor Piazzolla. And of course I would love to come to all the countries in the world and play ... ;) just check out my web site for concert dates.

Rehearsal now - have to be on stage.

Tine ;)

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Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Between Oslo and Røros

Blog entry 9th of March

Is it really possible that time are flying by at this horribly rapid speed?!? Already 8 days of March has been filled with concerts and a lot of thinking. Sometimes it feels like over 50% of what happens in my life actually goes on inside my head... Sometimes it's cozy in there, other times quite hectic - and right now it's the latter. A lot of stuff to sort out, I might be making things bigger than they actually are, but at least these 5 hours at the train gives me a lot of time to explore every single thought up there ;)

I'm looking forward to coming to Røros, it will be my first time! A festival with so many friends so I don't really see another option than having a great time.

For all you Norwegians out there reading this you should also start to follow the blog tenThing has just started! Promise you that you will get to know us all better. Maybe you watched the Norwegian Grammy on Saturday? We absolutely loved playing there!
Anyway, here's a picture of me from backstage:





Wishing you all the best from inside my head - in the middle of all my thoughts ;)
Tine



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday, 26 February 2011

On my way home from New York

Blog entry 25th of February 2011



It’s been quite a while since my last entry. Christmas is over and the New Year has begun, and what a year so far! My schedule before Christmas Eve was hectic, I actually landed in Oslo on the morning of the 24th – and that’s when my holiday started. Great to have good friends with me when I’m touring, Dagrun (my best friend since we were both 6 years old) celebrated early Christmas in Zurich, and Maren joined me for a spa experience (and a concert of course…!) at Schloss Elmau in Germany at my very soft beginning of the season in January ☺


So, I’m in the air again! Feels like this is the time I like the best to write something. I’m on a flight from New York to Stockholm, and then I have another flight home to Oslo. Had a very exiting, long week in the big apple! Started with the final destination of me and Håvard Gimse’s recital tour: the Carnegie Hall. We had some concerts in Germany as well, and I just love touring with Håvard. Amazing pianist, but also a great travel companion – that is also very important! So, I just have to way that New York really was a mind-blowing experience, so special to me. It’s not every day you play in Carnegie Hall, and I really appreciate the wonderful audience that made it so easy for me to perform, they made me feel at home and that is the best feeling an artist can have on stage.
Sorry – have to go, “…as we are about to land…” is heard over the speakers! Will write more at Arlanda ☺


I wanted to write more at Arlanda, but I fell asleep… In front of many people… while we were sitting and eating… I heard people laughing, but I couldn’t help it, too tired… Not caring… Zzzzz…


At home now, trying to fight my jetlag! A lot of crazy things going on now, and I will make sure to tell you as soon as I can… Very proud of the feature in BBC Music Magazine this month ☺

Will write more soon, now I just have to sleep…
Tinezzzzzzzzzz…..