Bringing Mayte's Dream to the Stage
When I began recording the music that became Mayte's Dream, I never imagined performing it in concert.
The music was created privately, late at night, for my fiancée, Mayte Garcia. She loves falling asleep to peaceful music, and I began improvising at the piano with one simple intention: to create a sense of calm for her. There was no audience in mind, no concert hall, and no thought of an album.
In many ways, that intimacy is exactly what made the music what it is.
This November, I will bring that musical world onto the stage for a very special solo piano concert at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on November 10, 2026. A few months later, on January 16, 2027, I will continue the journey at Musikhuset Aarhus.
From a Private Moment to a Concert Hall
There is something both beautiful and slightly vulnerable about taking music created in such a private setting and sharing it with an audience.
Mayte's Dream is the softest, slowest and most intimate music I have ever played. It asks for a different kind of attention. There is space between the notes. There is no urgency to arrive anywhere. The music is allowed simply to exist in the moment.
For me, improvisation has always been at the heart of music. I often think of composition as improvisation in slow motion – one note suggesting the next, gradually revealing a path that did not exist before you began playing.
That idea will also define these concerts.
Music Created in the Room
The first half of each evening will consist entirely of spontaneous solo piano improvisations in the spirit of Mayte's Dream. Nothing will be predetermined. The music will be shaped by the room, the piano, the audience and that particular moment in time.
This means that what happens at Louisiana will never happen in exactly the same way again. And what happens months later in Aarhus will become something entirely of its own.
The second half will look in another direction. I will revisit a selection of compositions and melodies from throughout my musical life and reinterpret them for solo piano – stripping them back to their essence and seeing where they lead me today.
Two Very Special Rooms
I am particularly happy that these concerts will take place in two very different but equally inspiring settings.
On November 10, I will perform in the Concert Hall at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art – a place where art, architecture, nature and music have always seemed to exist in conversation with one another.
Then, on January 16, the music travels to the intimate Lille Sal at Musikhuset Aarhus.
For music built around stillness, presence and listening, I can hardly imagine more meaningful places to share it.
These concerts will not simply be performances of Mayte's Dream. They will be continuations of the same idea that created the album in the first place: sitting down at the piano, listening carefully, and allowing one note to lead to the next.
I hope you will join me.
With gratitude,
Niels
