Torsdags Toner and DanskTop! on Studiescenen

DanskTop! was part of Torsdags Toner, where RDAM invites students to organise a concert on the Studiescenen. Freja and her fellow students seized this opportunity:

"Some of us had done a concert ourselves in the spring and the others thought it was great fun and exciting and wanted to join in. So when we were given the opportunity to borrow the Studiescenen and try our hand at putting on a concert ourselves, we jumped at the chance," says Freja, who is studying to become a violinist.

A new take on the classical concert

The title DanskTop! plays on the clash between the expectations one might have of Dansk Top as a musical genre and of a classical concert. It provided a framework to work into:

"We had an idea that we wanted to create a concept that challenged the usual classical concert experience. When you hear a rhythmic concert, there's really a lot of focus on the show, and that's a bit lacking in the classical concert, where you typically adapt the concert to the rehearsed repertoire. We wanted to challenge that and play with it a bit", says Freja and continues:

"The concert was an experiment where we tried to create different spaces on stage, we interrupted each other to play and that kind of thing. We wanted a light and playful atmosphere and the repertoire had to play into that concept. So, we played works by Nørgård, Langgaard, Carl Nielsen and Egil Harder, and we aimed at an audience that was perhaps a little younger than the usual classical concert audience"

You learn from arranging yourself

When you produce a concert, you get all the way around the event - the repertoire and the rehearsal, of course, but you also must make a programme, the concert has to be marketed and you have to think through every step of the event.

"You get confidence from trying to put a concert together. You learn what works and what doesn't," says Freja Julie Rasch Eskildsen.

 "And I think you generally get a better understanding of the repertoire you're rehearsing. You think about what you want to use the work for and how it fits into the context of the concert and the space in which the concert will be performed. It gives perspective in the rehearsal room". 

Advice for other students

All students are welcome to bid on creating a Torsdags Toner concert. A good tip from the DanskTop! organisers is to start by aligning expectations among the participants. Who does what and how much work is each person expected to put into the event? Most importantly the framework needs to be in place:

"Find a good concept. If the concept holds, you can change the programme and the crew on a regular basis, but you can't do the same the other way around. And then it becomes unmanageable," Freja concludes.

In spring 2023 TorsdagToner will be performed Thursday 13 April at 7.30 pm.