The all female members of tenThing Brass Ensemble pose for a picture while holding their instruments

tenThing Brass Ensemble
'A Feeling of Norwegian Christmas'

December 2, 2022 | Yardley Hall

Past Event


Explore musical traditions of the Christmas season while traveling across the old continent.


Starting at the beautiful fjords of Norway, travel through 18th century Germany, warm Italian Christmas and evergreen England to the sounds of Ukrainian folk music and Czech fairy tales. And there would be no holiday without some of the most celebrated American tunes and Disney songs featured in fantastic new arrangements.

Formed in 2007 by Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth as a fun and exciting collaboration between musical friends, the 10-piece, all-female brass ensemble has firmly established itself on the international scene to great acclaim. tenThing is celebrated for its commitment to outreach and access to music through a diverse repertoire that spans Mozart to Weill, Grieg to Bernstein and Lully to Bartók. The group works closely with Norwegian guitarist and arranger Jarle Storløkken on scores, which enables them to play pieces using a variety of instrumentations.

tenThing first established itself in performances across its native Norway, delighting a huge national audience by opening the 2011 Norwegian Grammy Awards. Soon after, the group came to international prominence at the BBC Proms in a performance at London’s Cadogan Hall. Elsewhere in Europe, they have performed at a wide range of prestigious festivals and concert halls, including the Schleswig-Holstein, Beethoven Bonn, Gstaad, MDR Musiksommer, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau, Bodensee, Engadin, Merano, Thüringer Bachwochen and Bremen festivals in Central Europe, the Merano and Sienna festivals in Italy, the NCPA Beijing May Festival and Moscow’s House of Music.

In Spring 2017, the ensemble embarked on its American debut tour, which included concerts in New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis and at the renowned Wolftrap Festival. tenThing also made its Paris debut at the Saint-Denis Festival in May 2017. Following international success, the ensemble returned to the U.S. in 2019 and is again, on this third visit, performing holiday-themed songs from Europe and the U.S. Next up: tenThing will be back on tour in Germany, Asia and across Europe.