On Thursday October 30, 2025, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra will present the world premiere of (How) To Play The Ocean, a new orchestral work by Maja S. K. Ratkje. The piece forms part of Essence of Stavanger, a celebratory project marking the 900th anniversary of the city of Stavanger with a series of works commissioned specially for the occasion.
The premiere will be at Stavanger Concert Hall and conducted by chief conductor Andris Poga.
Ratkje’s new work is a poetic and environmentally conscious reflection on the sea and its shifting presence along the Norwegian coast.
She writes:
How can an orchestra sound like an ocean?
The rich and multi-layered sea, reconciling and disturbing, full of all types of big and small waves at once in simultaneous fractal patterns, always changing—from calm ripples to house-high swells—much alive, yet never aware of its overwhelming effect on humans since the beginning of our two-footed (short in the face of Earth’s history) timeline, has always been a source of inspiration to human art, music no less. (How) To Play The Ocean is an attempt to engage in dialogue with the ocean in an associative and playful way.
The work draws on Ratkje’s longstanding engagement with climate issues and in the work the conductor is encouraged to conduct the orchestra like an ocean and is given much freedom in shaping the small and big waves in the piece.
Other works in the series Essence of Stavanger include Therese Ulvo's Restart/Reshape/Reveal and Eivind Buene's Brent.
Details
Stavanger Symphony Ochestra
Andris Poga, conductor
