Susanna Wallumrød

For close to twenty years, Susanna has played concerts at home and abroad, and so far there have been seventeen album releases. One of the projects Susanna Wallumrød has done is “I want home to the people” with poems set to music by Gunvor Hofmo.

On the occasion of Hofmo’s 100-year anniversary in 2021, Susanna released the demos for the album that came out years ago, and this autumn she is a guest at the Trondheim Jewish Culture Festival. Susanna performs the songs made from Gunvor Hofmo’s poems solo, with piano and vocals, and in a duo with saxophonist Harald Lassen.

“- a fierce, beautiful and painful record that should also give Hofmo’s poetry a well-deserved renaissance.”

Dice roll 5 Dagsavisen

“- Susanna from The Magical Orchestra has brought forward Gunvor Hofmo’s dark, longing poetry to a larger audience. Not only that, Susanna Wallumrød has turned several of the poems into beautiful songs.”

Terningkast 5, Bergensavisen

“- When you embark on the poems of such a prominent lyricist, the first order should be to capture the mood of the poems and carry them forward in the music. That’s what Wallumrød does, often with a “gloomy brilliance”. Dice roll 5, Dagbladet

Harald Lassen is a Norwegian saxophonist, composer and bandleader with his own projects, and as a participant in No.4 and formerly in Pixel, Bugge Wesseltoft’s New Conception of Jazz. He comes from Sørlandet but is currently based in Oslo, and releases his music on Jazzland Recordings. Lassen belongs to a generation of jazz musicians who dare to put their own stamp on the music; playful and melodic, where interaction and improvisation have a central place.

Susanna is the woman behind the duo Susanna and the Magical Orchestra and has otherwise performed both as Susanna and Susanna Wallumrød; she has released critically acclaimed music since her debut in 2004 on labels such as Rune Grammofon and German ECM Records, and through her own label SusannaSonata since 2011. She is known for her personal interpretations of songs by, among others, Joy Division, AC/DC, Dolly Parton and Henry Purcell, but also for her strong originals, setting the tone of Gunvor Hofmo’s poems and collaborations with, among others, Ensemble neoN, Jenny Hval, American Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and the contemporary dance company Carte Blanche.

Susanna has received a number of awards for her music, including the Spellemann prize in Åpen Klasse in 2013, 2014 and 2016, the Radka Toneff Memorial Prize in 2015 and the EDVARD prize in 2017.

In January 2023, she will make her debut with a full orchestra, playing with the Broadcasting Orchestra in Bærum Kulturhus.