Norwegian Lene Skomedal is based in Gothenburg, Sweden. She is a freelance horn player and yoga teacher. She combines her two passions by creating unique yoga workshops for musicians under the brand Breathe Music with Yoga Lene.She also gives private yoga sessions across Europe and the US. Her motivation is simply to make life better for musicians.
Ms. Skomedal has a MA in orchestra playing from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. Her teachers there were Lisa Ford and Per Göran. She has also studied with Frøydis Ree Wekre, Jonathan Lipton and Bill VerMeulen, and had lessons or played masterclasses for Stefan Dohr, Denise Tryon, Radovan Vlatcovic, Katy Woolley, Annamia Larsson, Andrej Zust, Hugh Seenan, David Pyatt and Timothy Jones.
She has been the co-principal at Norrlands Operan in Sweden, and has had long-term contracts with a large number of orchestras and ensembles in Scandinavia, such as Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Wermland Opera, Gothenburg Wind Orchestra, Royal Norwegian Navy Band, and many more. She also plays chamber music, and have participated in film music recordings, such as all the horn parts in the Norwegian feature films Rafiki (2009) and The Tough Guys (2013).
Her training background comes from gymnastics and dance and she started practicing yoga 15 years ago. Due to fighting cancer she had three major operations during 2012-2013. Back then, she thought she would never be able to play the horn again. Gradually she managed to restore her body thanks to the yoga and was able to come back as a professional musician. She then became a yoga teacher. Feeling stronger and more capable than ever, this motivated her to help others by sharing her story and knowledge, and out of this process her Yoga for Musicians concept was born. In additions to workshops and private sessions she has also developed a new concept together with the Gothenburg Concert House – Yoga Concert. In these concerts she guides a yoga class, where the audience do yoga. The music is in focus and she connects the yoga movements with the music and stories from the composers lives, accompanied by live classical music performed by a string quartet from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
Lene Skomedal now combines teaching yoga with playing the horn professionally in orchestras, music academies and festivals around the world.
At IHS51 in Gent, she held a Yoga for Musicians-workshop. During the week at the IHS52 she offers a variety of different yoga workshops and sessions, as well as a first time Yoga Concert with a live horn ensamble.
On Friday the 7th of August 4 pm she will perform two solo pieces composed especially for her.
Lene collaborates with Paxman Musican Instruments ltd, and play a Paxman M20.
Website: yogalene.com
