Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor –

If you want to experience a fresh take on classical music, you should attend the April 4 concert of the Norwegian Brass Ensemble, tenThing, at the Charlene McCombs Empire Theater. Presented by ARTS San Antonio, the all-female group was formed by trumpet player Tine Thing Helseth, who has the distinction of being the first ever classical musician to be nominated for a Norwegian GRAMMY Award. 

Helseth and her 10-member ensemble play together only a few weeks out of each year but when they do, they attract a great deal of attention and praise. Which is something Helseth has gotten used to. As a child, she first studied piano before switching to trumpet and eventually made a big splash in her native Norway, when at 16, she first performed Haydn’s trumpet concerto with a professional orchestra. International exposure came a little later thanks to a Eurovision’s Young Musicians Competition held in Vienna, Austria, in 2006.

She was only 20 when tenThing debuted on Aug. 18, 2007. After charming Norwegian audiences when they performed at the Norwegian Grammy Awards in 2011, the young women were invited to play at the BBC Proms in London, followed by festivals throughout Europe, as well as appearances in Moscow and Beijing.

Consisting of four trumpets, four trombones, one French horn and one tuba, the ensemble performs music of many well-known composers “from Mozart to Weill, Grieg to Bernstein, and Lully to Bartok,” in new arrangements by guitarist and arranger Jarle Storlokken.

The reviewer for The Independent described a tenThing concert as “a joyful blast from start to finish.”

Tickets are available at www.artssa.org, ticketmaster.com, or by calling 210-226-2891. The concert: at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 4.