THE NEWS FROM BRUNER’S BROOD - SPRING UPDATE FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2025

Hi everyone!

I trust that each of you have had a productive and busy first quarter of 2025. It has been a busy winter season for me and our family musically, which gives me an opportunity to write a short update for my Facebook pages and www.trentbruner.com. This is happening in the middle of house renovations for our family, so the income earned has been used to pay many bills for the house project my wife has patiently waited to do since she bought the house in 1999, two years before we met for the first time. For those of you who have recently liked and followed my artist page, I thank you publicly again for your interest and kind support as well as welcome the new followers who have come onboard. A warm welcome to you all! Please share this page with others, tell those you know that this page and website exists, and let them know that activities and events are lining up for spring and summer 2025. Now that Spring has officially come, more activities will be noted here as they are confirmed. Here’s the latest.

The months of January, February and March have included planning for future services and activities with the Osterøy Lutheran Parish, as well as developing a church music plan for Osterøy’s five Lutheran congregations. The plan allows for both development and improved planning to have more participation in services and other related activities, such as in religious education support, increased participation of guest musicians for various services and church activities for all ages, and for implementing a concert strategy for each church in the parish. A church music committee has also been struck for shared work between staff and volunteers, which will be nothing but a positive for the church’s future.

I have also been substitute music teaching in piano, voice and percussion, mostly for sick teachers between two area culture schools north of Bergen and Osterøy. Conducting choirs for concerts and regular rehearsals has continued with plans for future concerts with the Tysnes Chamber Choir and the Alvidt Manger Singers this spring, and a substitute stint for two Thursdays for a mens chorus south of our home also took place. A choir tour to take place this fall will be announced in the coming weeks. Dates have been updated in my performance calendars on Facebook and my website in the meantime.

When I have not been working on these projects, I have been notating fiddle tunes for a new music archive project initiated by the Métis Nation of Alberta. This project is coordinated by Alex Kusturok, Patti’s son. The aim is to have 250 tunes (some repeated with various arrangements and some tunes never released in print before) posted on an archival website with various tune collections performed by Métis fiddlers throughout the Prairies, along with related music and cultural research. I was approached by Alex in mid-January to do notation work on this project, and delightfully accepted the offer. As of this article, I have completed work on 188 tunes to date and await more tunes to come as they are found and sent to me. When a spare moment comes and tunes are in hand, I will be at work!

As for our daughters, Hannah Moira continues to study and perform as a part of her first year folk music performance program on hardanger fiddle and standard fiddle at the Norwegian Conservatory of Music in Oslo. Days have been busy for her, but she is working diligently and enjoying her studies.

Our youngest daughter, Ingrid Sofie, was involved in a special musical in early March as part of her music studies at Langhaugen High School in Bergen. The musical, “The Four Seasons”, involved every student in music, drama and dance at this school. It is planned every third year, which allows all of these students from Grade 11-13 to participate. Ingrid’s role was as a member of the school’s Chamber Music Ensemble on violin and singing in the alto section of the various choral groups. The music was a blend of classical, jazz, rock and avant garde music with various dancers having a large costume wardrobe between each season presented in the musical.

This triannual musical is held in Bergen’s Grieg Concert Hall (Greighallen), home of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Three public performances were held on March 6-7. Hilde and I were able to attend the final performance Friday evening, March 7th with an audience of over 1,000 in attendance. Many rehearsals are held from January during school time, evenings and weekends for the entire production, which involves all school staff as well in various facets. If you check my wife’s Facebook page (Hilde Midtbø), she shares a video clip that shows the scale and blending of production and performance.

At the end of the evening, all students received a well deserved standing ovation for their efforts in this 90 minute performance (plus intermission) that was led by former Osterøy Culture School dance teacher Camilla Romslo. For those who have seen Camilla in action with her dance students, including us, we knew there would not be a dead moment in the entire performance. The show was in constant motion between ballet and modern dancers, various class choirs, the school’s jazz band, the rock band, the brass ensemble and the chamber string orchestra, along with various soloists which have included both of our daughters while she worked at locally before being hired by Langhaugen. Even during the intermission, Ingrid’s class was in the lobby ready to bring the audience back to their seats in a very artistic manner. The show went on without the theatre’s PA announcer telling everyone to return to their seats. The class sang and led everyone back to their seats with the first song of the second half. I also believe that theatre security was surprised that their job was taken away for a moment!

In closing, I share this chorus from U.S. gospel singer David Meece that has been close to my heart since I saw him perform in concert in Saskatoon during the 1980s. The song “Lean on Each Other” from his album “7” has this chorus that gives us wisdom and guidance for the times we live in today, regardless of where we live. In my daily work as a church organist, the thoughts of my fellow church staff are echoed here:

“We gotta lean on each other,

We’ve gotta help each other be strong,

We gotta learn from each other,

We’ve gotta help each other along.

We gotta lean on each other.

Nobody’s meant to make it alone.

Together, we’ll lean on The Father.

Together, we’ll lean on His Word.”

Let’s all remember that music, culture and the friendships that come from them know no borders, oceans or restrictions. The more often we remember this, the better off we’ll all be. On behalf of my family on both sides of the Atlantic, take care of each other and love one another.

Musically yours, Trent