Trond Magne Brekka

Piccolo player Trond Magne Brekka didn’t have any other musicians in his family when he was growing up, and his school band was therefore of critical importance to him.

− I made a lot of good friends in the band, and came to play often with those who were a little older than me. They helped pave the way to a youth band, where we had a conductor who gave me soloist parts, and to a music programme where I was introduced to a positive environment consisting of strong students with an interest in music.

− Likes that the days are all so different.

At a band summer course, Trond Magne was encouraged to applying to the Norwegian Academy of Music, and he was accepted as a hospitant while still in high school. After his studies he worked in the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra from 2001, and in the Norwegian Radio Orchestra from 2008.

− What I like best in my job as a musician, is that the days are all so different, which allows me to constantly improve myself and develop in my work, he says.

Trond Magne describes himself as an indiscriminate consumer when it comes to music, and has played in most genres.

− As a piccolo player I am especially fond of playing Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Kodaly. They wrote incredibly well for the instrument.

− Don´t just attend concerts of what you already know

His best advice for an exciting concert experience is to be open to something new:

− Don´t just attend concerts with music you already know. A concert can be a bit like going to the cinema − you don´t have to be prepared to enjoy it. But it can be a good thing to read the programme or google around after the concert if something has caught your interest.

Trond Magne works a lot, and when he isn't playing in the orchestra, chamber music, teaching and meetings take up a lot of his time. He does have some spare time, however:

− In my spare time I like cooking, watching TV or travelling. It could be to a distant new place, but equally it could be a trip up to the cabin in the mountains.