The Art of Listening

A concert lecture with the pianist Annabel Guaita

The audience gets to listen twice to three short piano pieces by Edvard Grieg, Johann Sebastian Bach and Claude Debussy. You will be guided through the music and together we will draw the lines between music, human being and life in a simple but fascinating way.

A piece of music can be experienced as a lifetime - played out in three minutes. Through this lecture, you will discover how tension, chaos and unrest are natural and in fact also absolutely necessary to be able to experience to achieve balance and harmony. We use our own breath as a tool to discover the music's own breath, but also the opposite: We use the music to get in touch with our breathing. Coming closer to the art of listening can therefore teach us what it means to listen to one’s own body and become more aware in your own life.

The audience is taken on a fascinating journey inside the music. You get to enjoy beautiful piano music and at the same time get a new perspective on the art of listening.

About me
With an artistic PhD on the piano music of the Norwegian modernist composer Fartein Valen, and a deep passion for listening, I’ve spent many years exploring how music is experienced, shared, and brought to life in the meeting between performer and audience.

I’m an Associate Professor at the Grieg Academy in Bergen, where I teach critical reflection and artistic communication. But the stage matters just as much as the seminar room – and I love to experiment with new ways of shaping musical experiences.

I’ve released solo albums on LAWO Classics (2011 and 2022), and contributed to several other recordings. As a pianist and communicator, I’m regularly invited to festivals and concert series across Norway – especially by organizers who want to rethink how audiences engage with music and listening.

In recent years, I’ve curated and hosted my own concert talks at the Bergen Public Library and the Literature in Bergen, and brought my work abroad – including concert lectures in Berlin (2023 and 2024), and performances in Finland (2011) and the United States (2000 and 2011).

🖋 Alongside my musical work, I regularly write about listening, music, and presence – in publications such as Bergens Tidende, Ballade, and Periskop. I’ve been a guest on national radio programs like Min Favorittmusikk and Spillerom Søndag, and from 2011 to 2016, I was a classical music critic for Bergens Tidende. My approach is deeply rooted in phenomenology of music, after many years of studies with the Catalan conductor Jordi Mora.

📍 At the heart of everything I do is one essential idea:
Listening – and everything that opens when we dare to be truly present.

Visit my YouTube channel

The combination of her genuine commitment to music, high professional competence and not
least her genial and inclusive style makes Annabel an enthralling lecturer.

– Elisabeth Schanche, professor of psychology at the University of Bergen