Vilde's Artist Management

Foto: Tarjei Ekenes Krogh

CONCERT REVIEWS - EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESS

From the Magazine 'Barnehagen' (Edition 02/2006)

Since 1987, Vilde Bjerke has presented her father's poems for various
audiences. Recently it was the younger generation of Trondheim who
could enjoy her performance. In the course of one week, she visited
several nursery schools with a one-hour performance based on the
rhymes and rigmaroles of André Bjerke.

From the very first moment, the children were struck by her very personal
style. Through poems, rhymes and rhythms, the children and the adults
were guided through a world of fantasy where nothing is impossible, just
as we know it from the amazing, poetic universe of André Bjerke. She uses
every part of her self, she sings and talks and uses her body in the hour-long
performance. Personal stories from her childhood about how the poems came
about, accompany the show. She also deals with sensitive issues that the
children can identify with, and she brings along toys and puppets, moving the
audience to laughter and identification. 'Surpompen', everybody's scapegoat,
was particularly successful.

For the chlldren it was an experience that they will remember for a long time.
For the personnel, it was an hour of education, and an inspirational example
of how one can use rhymes and rigmaroles in nursery schools. If Vilde Bjerke
should show up in your district, we highly recommend her performance!

Ellen Marie Skjølsvold

Agderposten, A Party of Joy, by Stein Bay Styrevold, October 10, 2001

Liv Ullmann was one of many celebrities who showed up when Vilde Bjerke
and her band "Faun" threw their release party at the honourable restaurant
Blom in Oslo yesterday. Ullmann was one of four women Vilde called "her
mother".

It turned into a celebrity party when Vilde Bjerke released her first CD in Oslo
yesterday.

Almost 60 celebrities were invited. Not all of them appeared, but there were
no lack of famous faces. Actress Liv Ullmann, writer Anne Cath Vestly,
theatre director Mentz Schulerud, actress Sossen Krogh, actress Rut Tellefsen
and publisher William Nygaard were among those who came. All in all the
audience counted a crowd of one hundred at the Blom Restaurant on Karl
Johan.

A radiating and decorated Vilde Bjerke received each and one of her guests
with a warm hand shake. In the restaurant, food and beverages awaited the
audience in a cosy atmosphere with candle lights.

To be on the safe side, she had brought her father's favourite puppet. Then
the concert could start, a concert highly acclaimed by the audience. Halfway
through the concert another celebrity looks in, actor Lars Andreas Larsen. He
is impressed by what he hears, and stays on to listen to a few tunes, before
he has to run. But he stays long enough to almost see and hear André
Bjerke, incarnated in his daughter. He is bewildered.

So is the audience. The applause after the final song, "World Peace in the
Living Room", goes on forever. People we talk to have nothing but words of
admiration. They've had a great experience. They take the lyrics, the music,
the feeling and the atmosphere with them when they leave the restaurant for
the nice autumn weather outside. It is Jan Gunnar Halvorsen who has made
this possible through Sico Records. - I am very proud that our label can
present such a quality product, and that we manage to gather the leading
representatives of arts and culture here in the capital, says a happy
Halvorsen.

We stand for quality of the finest sort. This we have proven today!

Henny Moan, actress and Vilde Bjerke's mother:
- There were many nice songs, and the music was in tune with the
performance. I am very proud on behalf of Vilde.

Liv Ullmann, actress:
- This has been an hour full of life. It has been a pleasure to listen to.

Rut Tellefsen, actress:
- It was a great concert! I admire Vilde's way of dealing with life.

Julie Ege, nurse:
- It was absolutely beautiful. I didn't know that Vilde had such a poetic side.
She really got into the music and the lyrics.

William Nygaard, publisher:
- It was uncommonly inspiring, personal, musical and present. And a very
special presence thanks to the talented Vilde.

Sossen Krohg, actress:
- This was great and professional! Vilde Bjerke should have spent life doing
this. And what a message!

TA, Great meeting with André Bjerke's authorship, by Anette Haakonsen,
September 28, 2002

Those who came to hear Vilde Bjerke talk about her father, André Bjerke,
last night, experienced a powerful and personal meeting with the writer. The
Ibsen Cultural Festival was opened last night by Nina Mefald and Vilde Bjerke
who spoke about her father's life and poetry. - You are a wonderful audience,
said Vilde Bjerke. -Those of you who are old now, knew my father well.
People in their 40's, know about him, but those under 25, have little
knowledge about his authorship, she said. She depicted her father as a tall
man with a big stomach and little hair. -And the best father a little girl could
wish for. She described her evening as a lecture, but it was much more like a
performance. With personal stories and experiences, poems and song, she
captivated the audience.

Moving. The happening at the Ibsen Theatre was full of laughter, song and
moving stories. Many times, Vilde Bjerke was moved herself, especially when
she talked about her father's alcoholism and death. The last poem he ever
wrote was to his daughter. He wrote it after a stroke, which nailed him to a
wheelchair. In the poem, he describes his daughter as 'good and kind and a
proof of God's existence'. - He was sparkling, like a bottle of champagne. It
was very hard to se him lifeless, she recalls from the funeral.

Vilde Bjerke gave the audience an extraordinary evening.

Hadeland, May 20, 2003

Hoping for a re-run. I would like to give Aase Wold in Lunner, a verbal flower,
for arranging the lively meeting with Vilde Bjerke on Thursday, May 15th.
She read and spoke about her own childhood and her father, André Bjerke.
Now, I hope that this evening ca be repeated, so that many more will have
the chance to meet her.

Oestlandets blad, by Ida Bergstroem, June 30, 2003

A fabulous father. A personal, devoted and sparkling Vilde Bjerke talked
about her life at 'The Old Bakery' in Droebak last night.

Vilde Bjerke leans out of the window at 'The Old Bakery' in Droebak and
picks one white and one red rose. She puts them in a glass of water and
places it on the piano. Like this. Now she can start. -Welcome to this little
performance about my father, André Bjerke, says the writer's daughter, and
unfolds a poster depicting her and her father in their garden at Jar in 1963.
My father was a tall man with a big stomach and little hair, she laughs. -And
this is me, with my white, unruly hair, which was never combed. -Artists don't
care much about hair, gardens and things like that.

Strong as a straw. 5 years of age, Vilde used a straw on a beach to moor the
boat. Of course, this became a poem. And we all realize that a straw is not
strong enough for a boat. -But there was a man in Norway , who built a whole
ship out of straw, says Vilde. -The storm cannot break a straw, because it's
solid. And this might sound poetic, but Vilde is such a solid straw. André
Bjerke was a fabulous father. But he was also an alcoholic. He could
disappear for long periodes of time, and nobody would know where he was.
Vilde's mother, Henny Moan, was a diva and a busy actress. Vilde spent her
childhood backstage at the National Theatre, and was taken along to bars
after the performances, or to endless parties back at the house, the only time
her mother was home. It was not often. - I spent a lot of time by myself,
when father was out drinking and my mother was on tour.

An apostle of joy. For almost an hour, Vilde talks about her father and her
mother and herself. About the life of artists, about nerves and alcohol, joy
and love. With a clear voice, she recites her father's poems with energy and
tenderness. - André was not a sad person at all. He always enjoyed life, and
never worried. He was an apostle of joy and a fabulous father.

If she is as full of joy as her father? Beyond doubt, and with a big smile:
- Yes!

In memory of a fabled father. It was almost eight o'clock, when I was looking
for an empty chair at the library, this beautiful winter evening, a Wednesday
before Christmas. I had great expectations. Vilde Bjerke was on her way.
She was going to give a lecture on her father, André Bjerke. André Bjerke's
impressive daughter gave homage to her father. With great love, she
unfurled his good and bad sides. She talked about his love for her, and how
he always listened to what she had to say, when he, many times, went astray
under the influence of alcohol.

With passion, Vilde spoke about her father as the most playful person she
ever knew. And we were told that he wrote rhymes and rigmaroles to all his
three children.

It was one night, in the "existential spheres", that she decided to be honest
about this father whom she loved so dearly. Her book, 'You knew about a
land', took shape. The book has already sold in two editions.

Varden, by Morten Lie Haugen, August 8, 2002

Talked about her father.
Vilde Bjerke is the daughter of actress Henny Moan and writer André. She is
named after her father's great ideal, Herman Wildenvey. No wonder she has
a lot to share.

SKIEN: Thursday night she spellbound 200 literature lovers at the Ibsen
Theatre with close ups from her own childhood and openhearted stories about
her father's complicated life. Vilde Bjerke's wandering down the memory lane
was full of anecdotes, poetry recitals and songs. The poems spanned from
the cheerful 'A Doll's House in Doll's Road 2", written for his daughter Tone, to
the more sensitive poem "Maybe", dedicated to Henny Moan after she finally
had broken up with her unreliable husband. - It was not easy to be the child
of a man who suddenly disappears, said Vilde Bjerke. But Thursday, André
Bjerke was very present, at the Ibsen Theatre.