Hans Sørensen: Coordinating Artists with Repertoire

 

    Piano adjudicator Ashley Wass observed there is a "strong pedagogical presence in Singapore” < article found at https://www.sso.org.sg/press/young-virtuosos-shine-national-piano-violin-competition-announces-2025-winners >. This thirst for higher education gave birth to the Singapore Symphony Group (SSG) . A vehicle, which violin adjudicator Mira Wang encourages, “What a wonderful opportunity the Singapore Symphony Group has created for Singapore’s young string talents. Their dedication and artistry shine on stage, and I wish them every success as they grow.”

The Singapore Symphony Group encompasses the performing groups: Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore National Youth Orchestra, and Singapore Symphony Chorus. Hans Sørensen has served as Director of Artistic Planning for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) from 2019 to 2025. During his term, he also worked on the artistic planning for the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Chorus. His final project with SSO is the live recording Symbiosis – Tribute to Bill Evans, released on January 16, 2026,.

The live album features the Thomas Clausen Trio, conductor Jean Thorel, trumpet player Anders Malta, and flutist Evgueni Brokmiller. As Director of Artistic Planning, Sørensen led mediations regarding the repertory, handled negotiations for guest conductors and soloists, and navigated the recordings and its performing musicians.

He reveals why he wanted to be the Director of Artistic Planning for SSO, "I had been working 6 years at the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and at the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra for 4 years as artistic planner and orchestra manager, before applying for the job in Singapore. I wanted to focus on artistic planning and the job in Singapore was a newly created position."

"There are not many Artistic Planning jobs around the world," he points out, "and the job in Singapore came at the right time for me."

He describes his function as SSO's Director of Artistic Planning to Robert Markow in an interview at Our Recordings on November 18, 2025 < found at https://www.ourrecordings.com/reviews/great-interview-with-former-manager-hans-s%C3%B8rensen>. Sørensen condenses, "I’m basically doing what known as A&R (artist and repertory) in the record business, namely, putting together the right artists with the right repertory."

He elaborates in the interview, "Another part of the job is finding unknown repertory to play and possibly record."

His search for unknown repertory steered him towards the works of Bill Evans, locating one composition that Claus Ogerman wrote for Evans called "Symbiosis." The liner notes for SSO's recording explains, “'Symbiosis’ was originally composed solely for an album recording in 1974 for the MPS label. The full orchestral score was unfortunately not preserved for performance. In 2019, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) commissioned Singaporean composer Ding Jian Han to re-construct the orchestral score, under the guidance of its Director of Artistic Planning, Hans Sørensen. This score was performed on 6 Jan 2023, marking the first time ‘Symbiosis’ is performed complete and live to an audience, and recorded for this album.”

Sørensen expresses about the score, "To program the Ogerman ‘Symbiosis’ has been a dream for me for a quite a long time. It turned out that the score and parts were lost and it had to be reconstructed. I teamed up with a young Singaporean composer Jian Han. It took us one year to get to a full score with parts to perform."

Comprised of three works, SSO's album opens with Palle Mikkelborg’s "Bill Evans Suite" (1969), and moves onto reimagining Evans’s classics “Waltz for Debby” and “Time Remembered." These interpretations are followed by Thomas Clausen’s tender jazz ballad "For Pi" infused with the spirit of Evans, orchestrated for strings and trio with Anders Malta’s lyrical trumpet adding elegant raptures and refined textures to the arrangement, and closing with “Symbiosis.”

Sørensen cites, "'The Palle Mikkelborn Suite,' I knew about from my time at the Danish Radio (DR). I found the score and parts at the DR music library, and we used them for the live performance and recording. The Thomas Clausen piece was added as an encore in the same week as the concert."

"Thomas Clausen is one of the most experienced jazz pianists in Europe." he lauds, "and has worked with a lot of the major jazz names for the last 50 years, including Miles Davis. He has the Bill Evans touch and has also performed a lot of Bill Evans material." 

Returning to SSO's album, he considers, "It's a total of 80 minutes of music and just perfect for an album,"

"The SSO is a very flexible orchestra." he discerns, "and it also turned out that the program fits the orchestra very well, from the smooth strings to the brass, woodwinds including the saxophone section for the percussion section."

"For everybody involved in this project," he examines, "the challenge was to perform and record all of this new material within a week. None of it has ever been performed in a live setting before, and therefore balance, sound color etc, was new to everybody."

He characterizes, "What the SSO is doing is playing Symphonic Music in all genres. The Bill Evans tribute is a good example as this is symphonic music with elements from jazz and other genres in an orchestra setting. For the Evans concert, we achieved to attract a lot of the jazz crowd in Singapore, many of them were at the venue for the first time listening to SSO."

Bridging the language of classical jazz with the sensibilities of modern improvisation is part of Sørensen's function as SSO's Director of Artistic Planning while utilizing his creative prowess and resources across the music spectrum. He imparts in his interview with Markow, "The right programming will attract a diverse audience, and this is really what the job is all about. Getting as broad and diverse an audience into the concert hall and giving them the ultimate analogue experience still left in our digital world."

He surmises about his role in his interview with Markow, "Basically it’s about coordinating and planning a perfect season that will attract audiences and develop the orchestra."

Part of the community outreach to attract a wider audience is using SSO's YouTube channel. He recounts, "When I began my job in Singapore early 2019, the YouTube channel had 15,000 followers and not it's around 81,500 followers. It has helped the SSO to gain attention all over the world and local, having raised the live audience ticket sale from 79% before Covid-19 [lockdowns] to currently 93%. The artistic and technical quality of the videos has to be in top condition to attract new audience. The competition is on a high level and audiences want a high level on YouTube."

Besides SSO, Sørensen also works with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Chorus, taking part in coordinating these group's artistic planning. He highlights, "The SSO is full-time employed orchestra with a full orchestral season. The Choir and Youth Orchestra are amateurs, but are a part of the organization and especially the choirs collaborate with the SSO on different projects. The Youth Orchestra is the perfect setting for younger talents to play in a symphonic setting. They also do side-by-side with the SSO to experience how it is to perform with a professional orchestra."

For all three divisions of the Singapore Symphony Group, Sørensen firmly endorses performing live. "Live performances are more relevant than ever," he vows, "We live in a society where almost everything is digitalized, therefore people, young and old need and crave for an analog free space. Reading a book, going to the theater and listening to a live none-amplified orchestra are such free spaces left. Videos and recording are supplement to the live experiences. It's not either or but there is a need for both. Recording, videos and social media are an important and essential part of promoting an orchestra."

Hence, it was important to Sørensen that SSO's final release with him as their Director of Artistic Planning is a live recording. He regards, "In all my professional life, I have promoted music, either recorded or live music. There is still a lot of great music to be promoted and made available for new and old audience. It's just my chosen life-style."

He admits, "I left Singapore late September 2025, after 7 years working there. I began in my current position as artistic planner with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra & Opera October 2025." It is a life-style that flexes his creative prowess. Finding his way across a voyage that began in Denmark.

Growing up in southern Denmark, both of his grandfathers played violin, inspiring him at an early age to learn violin. His mother introduced him to the music of Beethoven and he relocated to Copenhagen, studying music theory. He moved through different jobs in the music industry from marketing to producing movie scores and lecturing. Working with the performing groups under the umbrella of the Singapore Symphony Group has left an indelible impression on Hans Sørensen as much as he has made one on the groups he served.

Coordinating artists with a repertoire that suits them is a strength he has honed for performing groups. Bridging genres and elevating arrangements to the level of world music caliber makes him an expert in his field. Hans Sørensen has invested his life's work in keeping music relevant for musicians and audience members. A mission that has no end date.