For all questions, also regarding bookings, access to music and the musical Younity
E-mails are welcomed: to@rupertderben.com
I was born in Germany in 1958..
..and emigrated to Norway at the age of 24.
Beside being a musician, singer, composer and lyric writer I run a small ecological farm in the mountains together with my family. I find this combination inspiring: like a tree, we stand with our roots in the mould, but are stretching our branches towards heaven.
It’s hard to describe music by words, but in my songs, I put much work in the lyrics. I sing about society, environment and spirituality.
Besides being an artist, I compose different kind of music. “Let it grow”, a composition for choir, solo singers and piano (or brass orchestra), is dealing about the Brazilian small farmers struggle for soil. At the moment I am composing a kind of musical: “Younity”. Working together with a lyric writer, I try to give an answer to some of the great questions: what does it mean to be a man, what are men doing to each other, and what is the purpose of life. More under the column “Composer”.
NEW NEW NEW
Under the next picture you will find my newest composition :
“Serenade for Ivanir”
Ivanir Hasson (1960 – 2020) was a very good friend I have known for more than 40 years. Her mother was norwegian, her father jewish. We met first time in Copenhagen, and moved to Tinn in 1983 – here both of us found their own small farm. And both Ivanir and I (including our families) were represented in NRKs programm “Der ingen skulle tru…” In 1989 she (and her sister Safira) started Cirkus Sibylla, a little theatergroup that traveled throughout whole Norway, and they also had some performances abroad. Her husband Carl Olsen joined from 1992, but Ivanir was the director and wrote almost all of the plays that Cirkus Sibylla performed. Cirkus Sibylla also teached many children in their traveling cirkus school.
The serenade I wrote for her in loving memory, is inspired by Edvards Griegs wellknown theme “Morgenstemning” – but he himself found the inspiration for this in the (under-)tones of the Hardangerfiddle. This instrument was, and still is very much in use in our commune!
The rainbow on the picture is right above Hylland munkelyd, a little monastry near by, that Ivanir loved to visit. It was there, I saw her last time, only weeks before she passed away.
(I recommend highly to use a headphone/amplifier when listening)