After riding to the airport with the rest of my tour group, most of them went in the direction of the international terminal while I turned the opposite way to fly domestic. I had booked a flight to Kristiansand, scheduled to be a 50 minute flight, but we arrived 15 minutes early.
Sissel Irene Sødal met me in the baggage area and we had a happy reunion as we drove to her hometown of Lillesand, reminiscing about times past and catching up on the news with our children. She came to Honolulu in 1987 to study voice with Annette Johansson at the University of Hawaii and during that time, she sang in the choir of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu under Carl Crosier. She then went on to the New England Conservatory of Music to receive a Masters in Vocal Performance. Sissel has a powerful, dramatic mezzo voice and has several concerts planned through next year.
She sang on our Benjamin Britten recording of the “Ceremony of Carols,” and you can hear her beautiful solo in “That yongës child.”
Carl and I visited Sissel and her then-husband, Tim Harry Blomberg in 1996. We know that Sissel and Tun Harry visited us in Hawaii sometime after that but no one can remember what year! In any event, it has been a LONG time since we have seen one another.
Something I have really enjoyed is seeing Sissel’s “jungle,” her garden of flowers, vegetables and fruit—I have really had fun eating fresh tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, and plums right off the vine! I especially liked eating a sweet, fully-ripened plum! (It’s hard to get good plums from the supermarkets in Hawaii—they are either too green and bitter or mushy.)
I even picked all these tomatoes myself!
After breakfast, Sissel and took the bus to Arendal to meet Tim Harry Blomberg and to practice the organ at the Trinity Church (Trefolighetskirken Arendal) where he and I will be sharing a concert tomorrow. The concert is one of several events as part of a boat festival (hence the boat inside the church).
We practiced one piece which we will play as a duet for four hands, four feet by Gustave Merkel, “Sonata in D Minor,” second movement. Yes, I only got the music yesterday, but it is adagio, and should not be a problem. Sissel took this photo of us practicing.
