Reviews
"I'd like to mess things up."
by Peter Hagmund
20.12.18 from Fyens Stiftstidende
“The recorder player Monica Schmidt Andersen would like the classical audience to laugh or clap along the way. […] – I have not yet experienced an audience that has become angry or has left a concert because I have separated two movements.”
Niche musician found the melody abroad
by Rasmus Lundberg
25.07.2017 from Fyens Stiftstidende
“Without doubting herself, Monica Schmidt Andersen graduated from the conservatory and welcomed a hard life as a professional musician. Today, a year and a half later, she has forged musical bonds across borders and the world’s oceans.”
The desire has never gone away
by Søren Ladefoged
16.02.2016 from Fyens Stiftstidende
“Monica Schmidt Andersen has been playing recorder for 20 years and will debut as a conservatory-trained soloist next week. […] Today I have a strong creative urge. There’s no orchestra job waiting, so you’ll have to say; “Here I am, I can do something cool, and you need me.”
Concerts are more than playing music
by Marianne Ryde – 05.07.2017, Optakt
“In classical music there is an expectation of the perfect and sublime. For too many musicians performing can be an anxious experience. It is therefore important to focus on the expression and experience more than playing the right notes. That’s the philosophy behind recorder Monica Schmidt Andersen’s Performatorium.”
The recorder - a wonderful instrument
by Lene Kryger
29.09.2005 from Fyens Stiftstidende
“If you’re going to keep the interest, the concerts are good for motivating. It’s more fun to practice when you have something to practice towards, explains Monica, who will play solo herself at the weekend’s three concerts.
– This is the first time I will play solo for real. It’s hard, but it’s also going to be exciting, says Monica, who will play the solo part in “Autumn” from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”
Travelling with Monica - Soloist class debut with concert-accustomed and curious recorder player
by Mikael Krarup
28.02.2016 from Fyens Stiftstidende
“French elegance with Italian fieryness represented by a sonata of Michel Blavet, German deftness and rigour in a concert by Johann Friedrich Fasch, and finally, in the debutant’s own inventive arrangement, Geminiani and fragments of Vivaldi’s “Four seasons” with little glimpses of Celtic folk music, cheeky and impactful. With the excellent “The Nordic Baroque Band” the debutant impressed with her sense of rhythm and flow, especially with the plesant and gentle sound of the alto recorder”
Review after being soloist with Ensemble Zimmermann
by Jens Chr. H
15.09.2016 from Viborg Folkeblad
“With Telemann’s terrific concerto for recorder, traverso flute and orchestra, the ensemble immediately demonstrated its distinctiveness: the music blades and swings, so it’s a desire. There is a lot of dancing, no one is left in doubt about the pulse and direction of the music. There’s drama, there’s humor, there’s fervor and passion. And above all, joy and boldness. […] The original instruments are allowed to speak their natural language without the distinction of ‘what one can and cannot’t do’. And then the music lives. The two flute players, Majbritt Young Christensen on the traverso and Monica Smidt Andersen on recorder, sound enchanting!
Couperin’s “Concerto in theatrical taste” was French court music in the best style, really something the Sun King could boast about to guests from home and abroad. Played weighty and elegant, with many surprising changes of pace and wonderful lyrical passages with the two recorder players.”
Reviews The Nordic Baroque Band
4/5 - Dagens Nyheter (SE)
"Nutida barock som väsnas och bråkar" by Martin Nyström 10.03.18. "With baritone Patrik Sandin they debuted with an album which spans between 1550 and 1750 on which they present an adorable and odd repertoire - where the Baroque is heard and quarreled as most. To hear their Vierdanck, Martin, Albrici and Wilche is very uplifting. not to forget the Telemans suite.
5/6 - Fyens Stiftstidende (DK)
"The known, the less known and the completely forgotten" by Mikael Krarup 24.10.17. "When the details are so clear, when tempos and dynamics are so well thought out, when the audible and visible interaction between the musicians is so obvious, the music brings life, dynamism and a nuanced richness that delights and surprises." "... which featured frivol, mischievous and uninhibited fiddler's music, iron dances and majestic exaltation, idyll and poetry in summer-lune gardens, moments of breathlessness and the divine, the bulky and sensuous, or a musical rendition of cruel bataljer or violent weather phenomena."
5/6 - ClassicalMusic (NO)
"The Nordic Baroque Band" by Martin Anderson 28.04.18." Whatever the childish logic behind it, it contrasts starkly with the thrilling professionalism of the playing: the faster tracks here sparkle with life and energy, and the slower ones are unassertively moving. [...] I have to confess that the musicianship on display here is so exciting, the performances so fiery and spirited, that I enjoyed this recording enormously, warts and all, and have returned to it often and with unalloyed pleasure.
Opus (SE)
by Hanna Höglund 29.05.18. Some albums you listen to the first time and think "this was nice" without knowing that this will be the most played album in the household this season. That's the case with Danish-Swedish The Nordic Baroque Band's self-titled debut album. here Monica Schmidt Andersen's recorder playing come out, spike as a spring streams in the opening track by Biber."
Reviews Dual aura & Trio Nebula
Graham Strahle, The Australian (AU)
"This disc is a wonderful exploration across musical time and place by two highly skilled Baroque-trained artists. Duets by Telemann share the stage with a collection of Danish and Celtic folksong events, along with contemporary Australian works by Ross Edwards and Padma Newsome. Violinist Ben and recorder player Monica tackle it all with vitality, affection and freshness. Their heightened sense of dialogue in Edwards' Ecstatic Dances is nothing short of outstanding. It is to be noted that their version of this work is new: the composer collaborated by adding articulation marks that would be suitable for an 'early music' performance. Another real delight in Traveller's Tales are several excerpts from Newsome's The Danes of Poowong East: with additional textures of harmonium and timples canariose, these are moodily atmospheric and richly sonorous. Here's hoping for more from Dual Aura."
Fyens Stiftstidende (DK)
"They'll Make You Crazy" by Mia Harm Madsen 03.12.2014. "Musicians: Trio Nebula plays contemporary music with pulse. Now a CD has been released that Trio Nebula hopes can make contemporary music more accessible for a broad audience. - "Our hope is to reach the general audience. The music is based on something that people already know and understand. The audience needs to bring home an experience," says the recorder player.
Rootszone
by Per Dyrholm 08.10.19. "It is the Australian violinist Ben Dollman who together with the Danish recorder Monica Schmidt Andersen has published this album, which is both well worked out and beautifully executed. Over four years of collaboration, the two musicians have brought two very different music cultures together and merged. It's an album you really have to listen to."
Examinations (In Danish)
Advanced postgraduate studies. Concert from the soloist class - February 26. 2016
"I et originalt program demonstrerede Monica Schmidt Andersen ved sin debutkoncert et modent og blomstrende musikerskab, hvor hun ubesværet bevæger sig i alle stilarter med en naturlig og ligefrem musikalitet. Programmet var flot sammensat med bl.a. en uropførelse af Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsens Monikalismer, der ligesom Rasmus Zwickis værk nød godt af Monicas faste understrømmende puls. Monica bidrog selv på komponistsiden med et forrygende arrangement af to barokværker (Geminiani og Vivaldi). Det brede musikerskab afspejler sig desuden i de mange ensembler, som Monica har etableret, hvoraf tre medvirkede ved debutkoncerten. Ligeledes vidner salsprogrammet om både seriøsitet og stort overblik samt sans for formidling, hvilket også kom til udtryk i de mundtlige introduktioner til værkerne. Både som solist og som kammermusiker optræder Monica med en naturlig musikalsk autoritet, og hun formår at inspirere og løfte sine medspillere. Koncerten blev i sin helhed forløst på fornemeste vis, og vi glæder os til fremtidige koncerter med Monica." - Lene Langballe, Dan Selchau og Inge Bjarke.
Exam concert: Master - June 10. 2013
Uddrag af udtalelse: ”Monicas KA-koncert var på et eklatant højt niveau, og programmet var præget af stor originalitet og repertoiremæssig spændevidde. Hvert enkelt værk fremstod med en stilsikker og musikermæssig præcision, både i det meget fortællende soloværk, og i de kammermusikalske værker, hvor Monica fremtræder med både stor lydhørhed og en samlende, venlig autoritet. Monica demonstrerer et stort musikerskab med et både teknisk og musikalsk overskud, og vi glæder os til næste udviklingstrin i Monicas musikalske rejse." - Nikolaj Ronimus, Dan Selchau og Inge Bjarke
Exam concert: Bachelor - June 9. 2010
”Monica Schmidt Andersen er en meget seriøst arbejdende, talentfuld blokfløjtespiller, som stræber efter det perfekte. Det minutiøst velforberedte program blev derfor også udført med dejligt overskud, akkuratesse og fingermæssig agilitet. Dette sagt med gyldighed for alle programmets værker. Det er sjældent, at alt i forbindelse med eksamenskoncerter er så umådelig gennemtænkt, som vi her oplevede. Man hørte det i udførelsen at hvert eneste værk, hver eneste sats, ja frase for frase, node for node. Alt har Monica Schmidt Andersen tilegnet sig.” - Nikolaj Ronimus, Anna Wallin og Per Erland Rasmussen