Go with the Flow. Masterclass with Tim Frederiksen

A documentary by Birgit Tengberg

The documentary Go with the Flow. Masterclass with Tim Frederiksen by Birgit Tengberg is a depiction of Professor Tim Frederiksen's Talent Development at The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. With the camera, we follow Tim Frederiksen’s coaching of two of the Academy’s string quartets, namely the young and newly started Novo Quartet and the well-established Nordic String Quartet, who are preparing for their debut concert.

In Tim Frederiksen's musical engine room, classical works are separated and reassembled. With his traditional master teaching, he teaches basic skills such as intonation, vibrato, bow, dynamics, and body language. He helps the young musicians to find the different layers of music so that they can create the desired interpretation or expression. However, the mental preparation for the performance or competition situation is also an important part of Tim Frederiksen's concept. Using tools such as pictures, colors, moods, or repetitions, he trains his students to establish a sense of security that they can take to the concert hall or to the competition. The goal is to bring the musicians in a flow so that they can concentrate to focus on the music, without disturbing thoughts taking over in a pressed performance.

The documentary thus shows aspects of working with the music and the musicians before the music is presented to the audience. As such, it can be seen as a key to understanding chamber music. It also shows the important musicianship and the distinguished Danish chamber music tradition that Tim Frederiksen represents - which has a reputation in the international music World.

Tim Frederiksen is a former viola and violin player. In 1980 he was appointed Principal Viola in the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and in 1995 he was appointed Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at The Royal Danish Academy of Music. As a teacher, he builds on his own experiences, and a large number of Denmark’s leading musicians have been through his inspirational teaching or coaching of ensemble playing. Tim Frederiksen has trained top-ensembles as The Danish String Quartet and Nightingale String Quartet, both of which have received international awards and recognitions for their concerts and CD releases.

Birgit Tengberg is a Master of Arts, journalist, and photographer. Based on many years of activity in classical Danish music as a festival producer and as a former amateur violinist, she has an in-depth and active knowledge of the classical music repertoire. In her documentaries, she works as a video-journalist and directs, films and cuts her own films. In recent years, she has specialized in conveying the artistic process in documentaries such as At odds. A portrait of the composer Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and in a small portrait of the painter Arne Haugen Sørensen. She is currently working on a number of video tutorials of the violin playing in collaboration with Professor Eszter Haffner at The Royal Danish Academy of Music. In addition, with her camera, Birgit Tengberg is following the young Danish composer Louise Alenius' process of writing an opera for The Royal Danish Theatre.

Watch the film "Go with the Flow. Masterclass with Tim Frederiksen" by Birgit Tengberg.