Composer Lil Lacy recommends concerts in August
Lil Lacy is a Danish/American composer, singer and musician. Lacy has developed a curiosity for composition, sound and improvisation through a wide range of very different artistic collaborations, projects and works. Dialogue with the participating musicians, and even with the audience, is important in Lacy's practice and in the processes of composing and finding inspiration. Lacy has composed, arranged and recorded music for various concerts and performances, and has composed several ensemble, solo and orchestral works.
Lacy is composer in residence at Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester (2024-2027) and Gävle Symfoniorkester (2025-2026) and has had her orchestral music performed in Sweden, Denmark, Romania, the USA and Canada, among other places.
Lacy also performs in several ensembles on the Danish experimental music scene.
She has played concerts and had her music performed in Europe, the USA, Mexico, Australia and Japan, and has released several critically acclaimed and prizewinning albums with various ensembles.
In 2020 Lil Lacy made her debut as a classical composer from the soloist class at Det Jyske Musikkonservatorium in Århus. The same year she received the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize. www.lillacy.dk
Credits: Photographer Rune Svenningsen
13-17 August (various times, already sold out) // Den Stærkes Ret, den svages pligt by Niels Rønsholdt
Late summer is so lovely because there are so many concerts and festivals. CPH Operafestival is diligent in facilitating and producing new, genre-breaking operas. They are also good at creating space for site-specific productions across the city and in unconventional venues. I have experienced many of Niels Rønsholdt's works and I am really looking forward to the performance of Den stærkes ret, den svages pligt. Unfortunately it is already sold out for those who are only discovering the performances now, but hopefully the work will be staged again soon.
14-16 August (various times) // Kaleidoscope - Concerto Copenhagen with Kammerballetten at DKDM
Amen, what is not to like; two of Denmark's strongest artistic forces meet when Kammerballetten and Concerto Copenhagen present Kaleidoscope - a brand-new full-evening production in which baroque music and modern ballet melt together in an intense and sensuous universe. I am really looking forward to it!
14 August at 17.00 // Laura Helene Hansen - Opera Talent of the Year as part of Cph Opera festival, Aveny-T, Copenhagen
Laura Helene Hansen is a wonderful singer and performer - and person. It is so well deserved that she is being celebrated and I think it will be a very special evening and concert. <3
15 August at 15.00 in Musikhuset Århus / Sunday 16 August at 17.00 in Tivolis Koncertsal Copenhagen // Aarhus Symfoniorkester and conductor Dmitry Matvienko
This evening offers various works performed by Aarhus Symfoniorkester and conductor Dmitry Matvienko, including one of my own works: the overture Di drømm dæ bringe vos sammel (Als dialect meaning the dreams that bring us together). I am really looking forward to the collaboration and to hearing my music performed by Aarhus Symfoniorkester and Dmitry Matvienko alongside Carl Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto with the fantastic soloist Mathias Vik Kjøller and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.
16-22 August at 18.30 // The Ring - Forever Hot
Well, I love the Ring and simply have to experience this experimental interpretation, staged by, among others, Anna Sofie Keller Brandsborg, Marlene Schleicher and Kirstine Fogh Vindelev, who are always good at thinking anew, and the performance even takes place at AFUK. I am so curious!
17, 21 and 22 August // The Inhuman Human Voice - Marcela Lucatelli in Cisternerne
Marcela Lucatelli has a voice and a gaze, both as composer and performer, that are relevant, different, brave and innovative. How lovely that she is coming to Denmark to make a production at CPH Operafestival, even though she has moved much of her life and work to Brazil. I am really excited to see how she uses Cisternerne's large reverberation with the voice at the centre.
19 August - 13 September // The Ring for the whole family
I saw this production last year with my nieces and nephews aged 7 to 14. They all loved it and it was so lovely to talk about the universe, the voices and the story together afterwards. It is a really good production and a superb adaptation of the music. Huge applause to the whole team behind this performance, my warmest recommendations!
20 August at 19.30 // Rudersdal Sommerkoncerter - Fairy Tale Concert in Gl. Holte Kirke
Rudersdal Sommerkoncerter always has something to offer that can awaken one's curiosity. As a composer, I am always particularly drawn to their concerts with works by living composers, and I love that every year they have festival composers from near and far. It demands extra effort from festivals to focus on living composers and to commission new works, and I deeply respect the festival's organisers for focusing on this.
20 August at 19.30 in Unitarernes Hus // Nær
This year I have the honour of being festival composer at From the Shadows festival, and this evening two whole new works will be performed in a collaboration between From the Shadows festival and Ensemble Storstrøm. I am extremely excited to experience Signe Lykke's new work as well as the premiere of my own work, and the musicians playing are wonderful. I think it will be a deeply focused, present, delicate, wild and unpredictable journey of colours and sounds - hope to see you there, or hear you, since P2 is also recording the concert.
21 August at 21.00 in Unitarernes Hus // Desert Sounds
This evening a more experimental programme is performed at From the Shadows festival. My work Sonoraørkenen for solo bass clarinet, written for the wonderful Jonas Frølund, will be included, but with improvisations across several musicians weaving in and out of the work. I am a big fan of breaking genres and traditions and I am genuinely curious how that will shape the work too. Looking forward to it!
22 August at 16.00 in Unitarernes Hus // Resonance
This afternoon at From the Shadows festival the focus is on a more traditional concert, which includes the work Reflections for oboe, violin, viola, cello and piano, which I last experienced at its premiere in 2022 at Aarhus Kammermusikfestival. I am really looking forward to hearing the work again and to collaborating with the lovely musicians. It is a great honour to be festival composer at From the Shadows festival 2026, to collaborate with the musicians and to have so many of my works performed, including a brand-new commission. It means a great deal.
21-22 August // Frederiksdal Chamber Folk Festival
A cool concept across genres - love it! I think it will be relaxed, fun and exciting. Unfortunately I cannot come myself, but I think it is a festival I would like to experience another time with friends and family of all ages and musical tastes.
25 August at 19.30 // Intimate concert with Trio Doré - soprano, horn and harp in Riddersalen, Roskilde Kloster
I am very fond of these musicians and think it will be a beautiful and really exciting concert. I also love the line-up of Trio Doré; soprano, horn and harp - so delicious, supple and powerful at the same time.
29 August - 17 September // Til Glæden, Det Kgl. Kapel, ballet
I am very fond of ballet, both modern and classical, and I would like to experience this production.
31 August at 13.00 // Christian VI and Pietism: music as inner order, Eremitageslottet
It is an exciting concept to experience traditional baroque music at Eremitageslottet. I think it will be a very atmospheric experience that is also a journey through time, quite literally. And a very special kind of intimate concert. Unfortunately I cannot experience it myself, but I hope the rest of you can - but book tickets asap, as there is a limited number of tickets!
