Pictures from the last months

Hi everyone,
Here are some pictures from what I've been up to for the last monts!
Promise to write more soon :)
What you see: Finland (Pori, funny sign and the concert hall). Dortmund (look who was at the poster outside my dressingroom door!)(And the most amazing pink scooter, I want one!!) Tine Thing Helseth Quartett in action :) Old Oslo tram and beautiful view from the fortress in Fredriksten.
Tine

Video blog :-)

Hi everyone,
My first video blog. (in english)
All the best,
Tine

On my way to Tromsø

Blog entry 3rd of February 2010

Oslo Airport Gardermoen

Eating pizza… I shouldn’t, really, but I just couldn’t help it. I just got the message that my flight was an hour delayed (because of late incoming cabin crew) and before a knew what had gotten into me I had ordered two slices of pizza and was paying for a bottle of sparkling water with the taste of mango. These things just happens… Looking at the bright side of the situation, I’m now enjoying some great pizza, and because of the delay, I have some extra time to write. Writing always calms me down, I should definitely do it more often.

I’m on my way to Tromsø, up in the north of Norway. There is a festival there, and I will play a concert on Friday. First rehearsal with the orchestra is tomorrow morning. Saturday, I go back to Oslo, and then on Sunday I start rehearsing with tenThing for our two concerts the next week. It’s been a long while since we were together, so I’m really looking forward to these days. We have a lot of exciting things coming up this year with the ensemble, so it’s going to be good to get started and feel how our reportoire is getting better and also expanding.

The last couple of weeks, since my latest entry, have been filled with wonderful experiences. I’ve played our official debut concert with Tine Thing Helseth Quartett (Jarle-guitar, Erik-perc and Aksel-bass), been to Kongsberg and played 5 concerts in one day ending with fun baroque concert with Barokksolistene and Bjarte Eike, played in Gstaad with Camerata Bern and Lorenza Borrani, had a recital with Vebjørn Anvik playing songs only, had masterclasses with great kids (everything from string quartet to guitar ensemble!), played charity concert for Haiti, visited and played with incredibly warm and generous people in Volda, and the list goes on. But, I must say that sometimes I feel a strong need to just be me, without my instrument and without my music. Just Tine. In some periods there isn’t so much time for that, and it can be very frustrating. But, I love what I do. You probably think; of course she does, but it’s something really strong. At some points stronger than anything else, so it’s not so weird that Tine without the trumpet sometimes gets a bit lost.

In the air between Oslo and Tromsø

Finally in the air, the flight is almost full. I’m seated at the aisle, a man at the window and the middle seat is free, I like that extra space. I like to watch people when I’m travelling. In all the different places you always see the same types, only in a different setting. Today, I’m joined by a lovely mix. Some American tourists, the whole Tromsø football team, some students who’s back from a study trip (as far as I can understand from their loud conversations at the airport), three middle-aged ladies who’s been enjoying the sun in Spain, husbands waiting to get home to their wife and children and then you also have the rest of us (including a cracy trumpet-playing, suitcase-living girl☺). I don’t mean to listen to people’s conversations, but sometime the combination of voice and volume is hard to block out… ☺

The flight is a bit bumpy today, maybe the pilot is flying as fast as he can to try to make the delay a little bit shorter than it already is. Anyway, if I don’t want to get sick, I think I have to say bye for now.

I’ll write soon again, until then, make sure not to do anything unexpected when your mind is set on the opposite, it might cause a brain-crash…
Tine ☺

At the train station in Katrineholm…

Blog entry 15th of January 2010

I’m waiting for my train to Oslo. It’s one hour delayed… A little bit of winter and snow, and the world stops ☺ I’ve been in Norrköping in Sweden, played Haydn with the orchestra last night. Lovely orchestra, such a warm atmosphere and I very much enjoyed playing with them and the conductor Christian Lindberg.

Since I’m just sitting here, waiting, I thought this was a perfect time for blogging a little bit. I’ve been a bit “lazy” with the writing lately, and I will try to do it better in the future ☺

Showing you some pictures from my touring the last months. Infront of the white house with my pianist, Steffen. Band session for TV-recording. Christmas concerts with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra. In Italy, South Tyrol with Synphonic Winds.















That’s all for now,
Tine ☺

PS: Happy New Year!

BBT blog

Hi everyone,
I've written a blog entry for Borletti Buitoni Trust. Read it here if you want :-)
Best wishes, Tine

Over the sea...

Blog entry 11th of December 2009

In the air between Amsterdam and Washington
KLM flight, seat 34B

So, it’s me and Obama today. Both flying from Oslo at 10:30, both heading for Washington DC! Unfortunately I didn’t get a ride… Air force One sure would have been a nice experience, I’m sure ☺ Next time…

I am so sorry I did not get back to you on the suitcase London-Vienna matter! What a bad blogger I am… Sorry that I keep you waiting for almost a month to let you know how it went, but luckily I did get my luggage back only a little bit too late. Had a very stressful day of running around at the airport in Vienna (Sunday, everything else in the whole city was closed…), finding a dress and everything else I needed. Forever greatfull to the lovely lady from Austrian who helped me!

Wahington! Looking forward. Food being served here… Coming back to you soon…
☺ Tine

Action on the road...

Blog entry 14th and 15th of November 2009

Waiting for my Vienna flight…
Heathrow, London

So many people walking by, I love watching them. I’m just sitting here in the middle of Terminal 3 at Heathrow, waiting for my flight to Vienna to start boarding. I left Belfast this morning, along with my mother, and after some delay we were on the way to London. She’s going back home to Oslo, and I’m going on a little Austria tour. Coming home Friday. Heavy weather on Heathrow today, that’s what causing all the delays. I was supposed to be in Vienna by now, wandering around one of my favourite cities in the world! But, it seems Mr. Weather wanted it differently… I will arrive in Vienna around 23:00, and who knows when I will sleep safely in my bed at the hotel. Hopefully not too late!

Today has been quite eventful. I woke up early, and walked over to the Ulster Hall to get room were I could practise a bit before our flight. Suddenly it turns out not a single room in the building is available, and I have to go back to the hotel. Luckily a meeting room in the basement is free, and I start playing loud on my trumpet straight away (without disturbing any of the other guests, yaee!). Then, in the middle of a Clarke exercise (trumpet players will know what I mean…) the fire alarm goes of! Everyone out in the cold weather. False alarm. Back inside. Then it goes of again. People come down to my room; I don’t have to go out. It stops. It goes of again. It stops. It goes of again. Then it stops. A bit disturbing for my practising… Then this nice man, who obviously is some kind of a technician or something, knock on my door and look at the air-condition in the meeting room I’m practising in. And believe it or not, he accuses me of setting of the fire alarm! (the room was absolutely freezing when I got there, and I turned up the heating…) I was of course shocked and told him I was so very sorry, and he was very nice saying it was not a problem at all, I just had to turn of the heating from now on. I told him I would. 2 minutes later some other guys joins this nice, friendly man, they tell me it is absolutely impossible that this is my fault. They look at my trumpets with admiration and we all part as good friends (I hope…).

My mother and I had the nicest taxi driver. I couldn’t quite understand all he was saying, but he had a very good sense of humour (the Northern-Ireland dialect is some times not too easy to understand…).

Heathrow is a very large airport! Huge, and so many people. In the lounge though, it was still and I tried to do some e-mailing, but I just wasn’t in the mood. I almost forgot my cell phone in the lounge! I panicked when I couldn’t find it, but luckily they had it at the front desk.

Vienna, Hotel Ananas (yeah, that is the name of the hotel… Ananas is pineapple in Norwegian)

So, even more action! My luggage never arrived. That’s right, my big, gold, heavy suitcase with all my stuff just didn’t arrive. So what do I do? It was way past 23:00, and after a terribly long day of travelling (it seems so much longer when you arrive at your destination so much later than you had planned), I was so not in the mood for this. I talked to the nice lady at the Austrian desk and explained the situation; I really need this suitcase before the concert the night after. All my clothes are there, my straight mute (I need it for the Shostakovich), my mobile charger (I usually always have this in my handbag, but of course not today..), my everything… Hopefully my luggage will arrive tomorrow with the first flight from London to Vienna! Fingers crossed!

The day after, early in the morning.

So, I slept a little bit. Woke up, and now I have just been on the phone with another nice lady at the Austrian lost baggage service. Not good news though, they have not received any messages about my luggage. So basically no one knows were it is! She is trying her best now to contact both London and Belfast, but maybe it has been sent on the wrong flight, and then who knows were it might be?!? I really hate this…. Well, there is really nothing I can do. It is Sunday, so all the shops are closed… Just my luck.

I have to eat some breakfast now, and then the rehearsal begins at 10. Hopefully the lady from Austrian will soon call me back with some good news!
I will let you know what happens… From now on I will always have an extra toothbrush (I did get one from Austrian, but it was not so good…) and some extra make up with me in my hand luggage. Always.
Tine ;-(

Waiting for the ferry… And waiting for the plane...

Blog entry 27th and 28th of October 2009

Nordfjordeid, Norway

I am sure you’re dying to know if Laila (my agent) and I made it to St.Petersburg and Novgorod. I am therefore delighted to tell you that we did! After that little incident with Laila not reaching her flight, the rest of our little Russian adventure went without any major difficulties.

Here you can see the eldest church in Russia, it is situated in Novgorod.

On Tuesday I had a concert in Novgorod, after the concert we were invited to the best restaurant in the little town. It was inside the Kremlin (along with the concert hall) and when we arrived there with Yuri (the artistic leader of the festival, conductor and pianist) it looked like a deserted church. But once we went inside and upstairs there were a lot of people and live singing and dancing! We ate traditional Russian food, and I got ice cream, lucky me ☺

Wednesday we went to St.Petersburg. It is a good two hours drive and while Yuri drove the car I drove him nuts with reading in Russian from my “visit St.Petersburg” guide… I don’t remember so much now though, only some words. He understood everything I tried to say, it either means that I actually have some talent for Russian, or he was just trying to be polite… At the evening we went to the Marinsky and watched The Magic Flute, in Russian! My little Russian from the car didn’t help me there… Lovely singers ☺

On the right side you see The Church on Spilled Blood and under you see me in the concert hall at Sheremetev Palace.

Concert in Sheremetev Palace on Thursday. There are so many beautiful buildings and palaces in St.Petersburg, it’s a bit unbelievable, and everything is almost completely authentic from the old days. Friday was practise day and visiting a couple of tourist spots, The Church on Spilled Blood and we went to the Winter palace and Ermitage. Gala concert on Saturday. Played Grieg, it was a wonderful experience. So many great people, so warm and nice and giving. I had a great week in Russia.

Me outside the Winter Palace.


Sunday I went to Trondheim (St.Petersburg – Copenhagen – Oslo – Trondheim) and had en evening rehearsal with the Trondheim Soloists. My mother met me in Oslo and joined me for my evening in Trondheim so that I could change some of the content in my suitcase… Two and a half week and 10 concerts take a lot of different clothes and things, so it was good to be able to change some of it. Then Monday morning, at 7 o clock in the morning (way tooooo early) the bus left my hotel (my mother went home to Oslo) and soon we were on the road to Nordfjordeid. Had the first concert on our tour yesterday, so much fun! Looking forward to the rest.

Stavanger Sola Airport…

My Internet connection has been bad, so I am still writing on this same entry. Now I am sitting at the airport in Stavanger. We just arrived here from Bergen and are going to London, the plane boards in half an hour or so. It is the 28th today; yesterday we had our second concert on the tour in Bergen. At Troldhaugen, Grieg’s home, lovely place. Today the others have a free day in London, while I have some interviews to attend. My CD is being released on the UK on Monday and I am very exited. Tomorrow we have a concert in Cadogan Hall in London, Friday in Canterbury and Saturday in Leeds.

Will be back with a report from the road…
Until next time, be sure to visit the Winter palace and the Ermitage museum if you are in St.Petersburg, to see paintings by Matisse, Monet, Rembrandt and Da Vinci in real life if simply amazing.
Tine ☺

Düsseldorf Airport

Blog entry 19th of October 2009

Action already…

So, I’m back again. Never a trip without a little bit of action… My day started okay, and the checkout from the hotel and the drive to the airport was action-free. However, it all started when I arrived at the check-in counter. I was already aware that my luggage was a couple of kilos too heavy, and was of course prepared to pay a little bit extra. Düsseldorf to St.Petersburg via Stockholm, 20 euro per kg, 5 kg = 100 euro!

Security control: Full check of all my hand luggage (trumpet bag, piccolo trumpet case and handbag), some weird check of the surface of my Mac Book, full body visitation… Everything was fine, luckily I am no criminal, and I went to buy myself some breakfast. Then my manager calls me. She was supposed to meet me in Stockholm and we would fly together for St.Petersburg, but it turns out not everything goes as planned. Due to some traffic accident she arrives at Flesland airport (in Bergen, she lives there) too late for check-in of her luggage, and (even though she really tries some heavy arguing) she misses her first flight to Stockholm. Then she finds out there is no way of getting to Stockholm so that she will reach our flight to St.Petersburg. So much for my quiet breakfast… Many phone calls later she has arranged herself a new flight; she will now arrive in St.Petersburg late in the evening (travelling via Oslo and Riga…).

Hopefully we will meet tonight in St. Petersburg ☺

Here are the pictures from the last entry:

In Norway they clearly start Christmas celebrations in some stores way too early. Date: 4th of October!

And last a couple of pictures from the making of my new music video! Yes, my new CD is soon arriving, and now it is official, it is a Christmas album. I had the best tome making the album (with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Elise Båtnes(leader) and Isa Gericke (soprano)), and wow did we have fun making the video! This is a little taste of what’s coming. I will let you know all about it of course.

The winter is arriving

Blog entry 18th of October 2009

Düsseldorf - Germany

I am sitting at my hotel room in Düsseldorf. The TV is on, Mahler’s 1st symphony with Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, while I write to you. I am sorry for all the time that has gone by since my last entry. My intentions has been good all the way, I really wanted to write sooner. But, here I am again.

I practically just got of stage at the Tonhalle here in Düsseldorf, concert with Mendelssohn Kammerorchester Leipzig. Very nice concert, I really enjoyed it. Tomorrow I fly for St.Petersburg, and after a couple of hours on the road I will be in Novgorod. I am on a long tour at the moment, not back home until the 3rd of November; I promise I will write to you on the road.

Some pictures from my last two months ☺

First one from the concert with the Oslo Philharmonic on the 10th of September, I did Birtwistle's Endless Parade (as I told you about in my last entry). It was SO much fun! This was a huge goal for me, and I just simply really had a great time onstage. A real kick!


Then you see me the next day at my friend Frida’s house, making pizza! So nice, that is the differences in my life, and do I love them!



Now, something weird happend to the internet connection and the uploading of pictures... But next time you will see these pictures aswell:
In Norway they clearly start Christmas celebrations in some stores way too early. Date: 4th of October!

And last a couple of pictures from the making of my new music video! Yes, my new CD is soon arriving, and now it is official, it is a Christmas album. I had the best tome making the album (with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Elise Båtnes(leader) and Isa Gericke (soprano)), and wow did we have fun making the video! This is a little taste of what’s coming. I will let you know all about it of course.

So, hopefully you will here from me in a couple of days (with pictures...),
Until then, enjoy life ☺
Tine