SISSEL: Northern Lights
Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Featuring Sissel
BROADCAST DATES:
Thursday, 12/7 at 8 p.m. - Northern Lights/Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Saturday, 12/8 at 11:30 p.m. - Northern Lights/Mormon Tabernacle Choir
CONCERT DATES: - ALL NEW!
Wednesday, 2/13/08 at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, 2/14/08 at 7:30 p.m.
The Bushnell, Hartford
February 13, 2008
PLEDGE AMOUNT: $300 VIP Tickets and Meet & Greet
Pair of VIP tickets - Concert on Thursday, 2/13/08, 7:30 p.m.
Meet & Greet with Sissel and Post-Concert Dessert Reception
PLEDGE AMOUNT: $180
Pair of Tickets - Concert on Thursday, 2/13/08, 7:30 p.m.
February 14, 2008 (Valentine's Day)
PLEDGE AMOUNT: $180
Pair of Tickets to Sissel in Concert on Thursday, 2/14/08, 7:30 p.m.
or call CPTV at 1-800-683-2112.
NORTHERN LIGHTS: AN EVENING WITH SISSEL AND FRIENDS
This program was filmed from two live performances that took place in the landmark Roros church in Roros, Norway. At various points in the program, we see scenes of the town, the mountains surrounding it, the historic church and the local townspeople. At times, there are shots of Sissel outside in the snow.
This concert features special guest Jose Carreras.
Note: This is the third Sissel concert to air on public television. The first was Sissel in Concert: All Good Things (March, 2003); Sissel: In Paradise followed in March, 2005. Additionally, Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Featuring Sissel, will air on December 19, 2007.
Sissel Kyrkjebo (pronounced SHEAR-shuh-buh) was born June 24, 1969 in Bergen, Norway. At the age of 10 she had begun singing in several talent competitions. When she was only 14 she performed in a children’s television program, and appearances on other television programs followed. A video of Sissel was broadcast to viewers all over Europe, bringing her greater popularity and recognition.
In 1984, at the age of 15, she released her first album, self-titled Sissel. It became the highest-selling album in Norway ever. In 1987, she released a Christmas album. By 1988, Sissel was performing in Oslo, playing the leading role as Maria von Trapp in the Norwegian version of The Sound of Music. She later toured in Norway with the musical, and sang as Ariel in the Norwegian, Swedish and Danish versions of Disney’s The Little Mermaid. She released another album, Soria Moria.
In 1992, she collaborated with Neil Sedaka and they toured throughout Norway. That year, she appeared at the Olympic Games in Albertville. Soon after, Sissel married Danish entertainer Eddie Skoller. (Sissel was so popular by then that the wedding received a lot of attention from the Norwegian and Danish press.) In 1994 Sissel sang the official Olympic song “Fire In Your Heart” in Lillehammer. That same year, Placido Domingo invited her to perform at the annual Christmas concert in Vienna with Charles Aznavour and himself. The televised concert was broadcast all throughout Europe. In 1995, she sang for Prince Charles in “A Royal Gala.”
In 1997, Sissel was a featured soloist for the U.S. recording of the musical score for Titanic. By the end of 1998, Titanic has premiered throughout the world. In the U.S., where Sissel was almost unknown before the movie, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and other influential newspapers had taken notice of Sissel, suddenly bringing interviews and articles about “the Norwegian songbird.”
By 2000, Sissel was the mother of two young girls, but her career continued to advance. She recorded All Good Things, represented Norway at the Nobel Peace Prize concert, and sang on a new album for the Danish rock band, Sort Sol. By 2002, Sissel recorded two duets (“Ave Maria” and “Kyrie”) with tenor Placido Domingo, and she performed to sold-out concerts in Denmark. Sissel performed with both Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras on television. She sang at the royal wedding of Norway’s Princess Martha Louise and Ari Behn, which was broadcast live on television. During the fall of 2002, she released Sissel in the U.S., her solo debut in the U.S. In 2004, Sissel toured with The Lord of the Rings Symphony tour. That year, she released her second album, My Heart, in the U.S. and did a limited tour of fourteen U.S. cities.
Sissel has collaborated with many other musicians, including popular tenor Josh Groban and jazz singer Diana Krall. She is a real favorite of Paddy Moloney and his Irish folk group The Chieftains. She has sung in Gaelic on their album The Long Journey Home and has joined the band onstage at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Sissel has sold some five million copies of her solo albums, which have been certified gold and platinum in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. In February 2007 Sissel received the Norwegian Grammy Award of Great Honor (the youngest Norwegian performer ever to receive the award).
Sissel has been involved in numerous charitable causes since she began performing as a teenager. Some of her projects include donating profits from concerts to street children in Bolivia and creating campaigns to fight cancer and contributing to several charity CDs, such as one to raise funds for tsunami victims in Southeast Asia. As a teenage, she visited slums in Thailand. Recently, Sissel was named an ambassador for UNICEF. One recent trip she made in that role was to Mozambique to focus on HIV/AIDS problems.
MISCELLANOUS BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Roros, Norway
The 17th century village of Roros is located in northern Norway has garnered the title of an UNESCO World Heritage site. Beginning in the mid-17th century, the town was home to a large copper mine that grew at a rapid pace. Mining experts from Denmark and Germany poured into the town. Throughout the mine’s 333 years of history (it closed in 1986), Roros Copperworks played a major economic role in the Danish/Norwegian kingdom. This town, known for its craftsmen, courtyards and workshops, boasts a rare collection of large and well-preserved wooden buildings still in use today.
Roros Church
This white stone church, built in 1784, is the fourth largest in Norway, seating 1,600 people. It’s been designated by the Directorate of Cultural Heritage as among the ten most important churches in the country. The church also is called “Bergstadens Ziir” (German for “the mountain town’s jewel.”) The Danish king’s initials are carved on the wall inside the church.
Northern Lights
These lights (also known as the aurora borealis) are so named because they are only visible in the sky from the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in the polar regions. These auroras are natural-colored light displays usually observed in the night sky and they most often occur September-October and March-April. This phenomenon is now known to be caused by the collision of charged particles found in the magnetosphere with atoms in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. When these particles, traveling into space at high speeds, collide with atoms of gases in the atmosphere, the result of the gained energy is light. The aurora’s lights tend to result in a greenish glow or a dark-red glow.
Jose Carreras (b. 1946)
The famed tenor, who was born and raised in Barcelona, gave his first public performance at the age of eight. By the age of 28 (when many opera singers are just starting to make their mark), he had sung the tenor lead in 24 different operas in both Europe and North America and had made his debut at the world’s four great opera houses—the Vienna Staatsoper, London’s Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera, and La Scala. In 1987, at the height of his success, Carreras was diagnosed with acute leukemia and given a slim chance for survival. Carreras recovered and resumed his career, gradually returning to the opera stage and the concert platform as well as to the recording studio.
In 1990, Carerras made the first of the acclaimed Three Tenors performances—at the opening of the World Cup in Rome. A series of Three Tenors concerts took place throughout the 1990s, followed by record-breaking sales of their recordings. Carreras’ performance schedule continues to be full and his awards have been numerous.
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