Composer creates concerto to shine a light on chronic illness

Florence Lockheart
Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Danish composer Martin Byrial's latest concerto is based on stories sent to him from families fighting chronic illness

The six-movement concerto was premiered at Aalborg Concert Hall under the baton of Henrik Vagn Christensen (Image courtesy of Martin Byrial)
The six-movement concerto was premiered at Aalborg Concert Hall under the baton of Henrik Vagn Christensen (Image courtesy of Martin Byrial)

A new concerto by US-based Danish composer Martin Byrial aims to shine a light on the stories of families dealing with chronic illness. Concerto for Strings and Organ No. 1 is an homage to the battle for dignity and survival faced by families dealing with chronic illness and disability, aiming to empower the people whose stories it tells.

The six-movement concerto is based on stories sent to Byrial by families across the UK, US and Denmark and was premiered at Denmark’s Aalborg Concert Hall under the baton of Henrik Vagn Christensen. Having given the recording of the concerto’s world premiere to MEAction Network – a global organization spreading awareness of chronic illness Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – Byrial hopes to take the concerto on tour with the organisation across the UK and US.

Talking about the idea behind this work, Byrial said: ‘In the general society there can be the assumption that people with long term illness are laying still, that the illness somehow puts them in a sort of hibernation. Nothing could be further from the truth. These people are experiencing every fragment of every second of suffering and of life violently passing by in a mix of pain and anger, hope and passion. These people are not sedentary, they are not lying in beds in secret rooms, they are not bleak stories of depression – they are stories revealing why the human race can survive anything.’

The full concerto is also available to listen to as an album. In an effort to demystify his artistic process, the idea phase of Byrial’s composition was live streamed across 15 days on the composer’s YouTube channel.

Talking about his decision to open up his creative process in this way, Byrial said: ‘As composers, we have a unique privilege. We get to transform stories and modulate them into new worlds. By showing the unfiltered process of how a large musical work can be wrangled, we could perhaps inspire people to look at their own stories and perhaps find a path towards a more gratifying perspective.'