Håkon Magnar Skogstad: '24 Variations for Piano'

24 Variations for Piano consists of 24 movements in 24 keys and are variations on a main theme that is introduced at the beginning. The work can be considered a kind of "traveling exhibition", where the audience is presented with 24 very different and colorful images, but which all follow a clear common thread. Skogstad's composition is inspired by classical forms, and takes up impulses from famous composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Grieg, Liszt, Musorgsky and Rachmaninov, Chopin and Bach.

Skogstad combines these impulses with inspiration from Argentine tango style and Astor Piazzolla. The result is a unique work that plays on a fusion of musical impulses in Skogstad's distinctive tonal language and rhythm. Stylistically, the work can be considered somewhere between the Goldberg Variations, the Chopin Preludes and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Håkon Magnar Skogstad (b.1989) is a critically acclaimed Norwegian pianist and composer with classical piano education from Trondheim, Oslo and New York. He completed his artistic doctorate at NTNU in 2022. Skogstad has played concerts in large parts of Norway, as well as in the USA, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Spain and Sweden.

He has received a number of awards, including the Paul Okkenhaug Prize in 2018 and the Spellemann Prize in 2021 for his album "Visions of Tango" with Atle Sponberg and the Trondheim Soloists, which includes Skogstad's original tango piano concerto.

As a composer, Skogstad has arranged and composed over 80 works, including several major commissioned works, including "Concerto for Tuba and String Orchestra", premiered by August Schieldrop and KORK and broadcast on NRK. His music has been played on national radio in Norway, Germany and Argentina and at the time of writing has over 300,000 plays on Spotify alone.