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of 2015 and on tour with "Den kulturelle Q: How do you manage to converge your
skolesekken" in 2016. The show became part creative work with your work in the church?
of Norway's first musical theater festival I use any opportunity to do my work, either
"Musikaliteten" in 2017. writing a musical piece or orchestrating
for others. But for six years, I collaborated
Q: You are now living in Brooklyn, a place with actress and writer Hilde Skappel. We
where many Norwegian immigrants used to started practicing together in the Trygve
live. Why did you choose to live there? Was Lie Gallery (a great grand piano there) and
it on purpose or simply by coincidence? then moved on to writing songs for the
The summer before I started my studies church employees that were moving back
at Tisch School of the Arts, I had to find a to Norway. During our writing sessions, we
place to stay, and I randomly ended up in also realized we had lots of shared ideas for
Clinton Hill in Brooklyn. I fell in love with musicals, and we started working on several
Brooklyn, and when my girlfriend, now stories. In February 2019, Hilde organized a
wife, was moving from North Carolina to charity concert at the Norwegian Seamen's
New York, we were looking for a place in Church for the organization "Dråpen i
Brooklyn. We ended up moving into an havet" ("A Drop in the Ocean"), where lots
apartment in Park Slope, and to this day, of her artist friends participated. We wrote
we love our neighborhood. It's lovely to the theme song for the concert, "A Drop in
come home to Brooklyn after working in the ocean." Sadly, in the summer of 2019,
Manhattan all day. Hilde passed away. During the beginning of
the pandemic in 2020, I wanted to record
Q: Today, you are also in charge of the the song, so I got in touch with many of
cultural activities in the Norwegian our musician friends who all wanted to
Seamen's church in New York, notably the participate in a virtual recording. You can
Trygve Lie Gallery. What does this involve? find the music on my website and Youtube.
We have a lovely gallery in the basement of After Hildes' passing, it was hard to do much
the church called Trygve Lie Gallery, named creative work. I still have several projects
after the Norwegian Trygve Lie, the first we started, which are half-written, which I
Secretary-General of the United Nations. would love to finish one day.
The gallery is open to Norwegian-American
artists who want to promote their work to a Q: Do you have any projects in the U.S.? If
New York audience. We are fully booked for people would like to listen to your music or
the next year, with Norwegian artists living attend an event, what can they do?
in Norway and the U.S. will show their On my website, www.stahrmusic.com, you
fantastic work. can get updates on my work and find links
We currently have an exhibit by artist Jome to my music on Spotify, Apple Music, or
Feoca called "Tayo. Oss". It's open during Youtube, as well as purchase sheet music
our regular opening hours (Wed-Sat 12-4 if you are interested in playing some of my
pm/Sun 10 am-2 pm). piano compositions.

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