Cecilia Götestam

Cellist Cecilia Götestam was born in Uppsala in Sweden, but grew up in Trondheim, where she was exposed to a lot of music at home from an early age.

− Everyone in my family were amateur musicians, we listened to a lot of recordings and went to concerts often, she says.

− I started playing the piano when I was around four, and my patient father was forced to listen to my hopeless music reading skills for quite a few years.

− I was especially fascinated by the timpani player

She didn´t have to wait long to experience some full-blooded orchestral music:

− From when I was of school age, I heard Trondheim Symphony Orchestra almost every week − I hung over the railings in the gallery of the Freemasons´Hall and sucked in lots of new impressions. I was especially fascinated by the timpani player, as he throned majestically in the middle, surrounded by running percussionists.

At this point, Cecilia had started playing the cello, and she was part of the first group at Trondheim Communal Music School which was offered Saturday lessons - started by Principal of the school, Kåre Opdal.

− This offer was without a doubt of critical importance to me. We had the chance early on to play a lot of chamber music, and the wonderful atmosphere made one want to continue to play. Later on it was completely natural to apply first to the music programme and then the conservatory, and then the way was paved.

− Sitting in the middle of all that sound is intoxicating

Chamber music continued to play a crucial role:

− Every summer throughout my childhood and youth I would attend chamber music courses with Chilingirian String Quartet, and its members have been very important for my development as a musician.

Cecilia was engaged by the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra in 1995, and enjoys the close daily contact with musical masterpieces enormously:

− Making music with my colleagues in the cello group, and with the whole orchestra, is a very particular form of wordless communication. Those times where everything comes together in a rehearsal or in a concert, when the separation between individual musicians disappears and the orchestra organism takes over - sitting in the middle of all that sound is simply intoxicating!

− At the end of it all you are completely exhausted

Cecilia finds it difficult to pick out one exceptional experience among the many concerts she has taken part in throughout 20 years with the orchestra.

− When I think back to the Mariss-period, everything seemed golden; the weeks with Blomstedt are also always very special. But I´d also like to mention Prokofiev´s Romeo and Juliet with Vasily Petrenko just recently. It´s fantastic music that really grabs hold of you. At the end of it all you are completely exhausted after living through the entire drama.

One composer in the orchestra´s repertoire stands out in particular - Johannes Brahms:

− There is a melancholy and a longing in his music which appeals to me. I never get tired of playing his symphonies!

As an audience member, she thinks the most important thing is to put away one´s daily cares:

− You´ll be more receptive to take in the music then. Personally, I often feel I get more out of a concert if I already know the music, but on the other hand it´s also nice to be surprised!

In her spare time, Cecilia practices classical ballet:

− Ballet is for me the ultimate way to relax. It demands so much concentration that thoughts of anything else must be put aside.