Piano in the Elms: Kamilla Arku and Jordan Söderberg Mills

Kamilla Arku 

Displaying an artistry that “provides a space to breathe and take in the world around us,” (Culture is Free)

Liberian-Norwegian pianist Kamilla Arku draws on her diverse background as inspiration for her work as a performer, scholar and educator. She gave her London debut recital at the renowned ‘Pianists of the World’ series at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields in 2013, and has since performed as a soloist and chamber musician in the US, Europe and Africa. Recent highlights include performances for Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago, MoMA PS1, the  Royal Opera House, the International  Florence Price Festival, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim. Her latest release is a collaboration with composer Dameun Strange out on the nonclassical label. In the 2023-24 season  Kamilla  also joined Madonna’s “Celebration Tour” as a piano coach and teacher. 

Kamilla has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio London and performed chamber music artists such as Stephen Kovacevich,Karen Slack, April Koyejo Audiger and the Ivalis Quartet. Kamilla is passionate about introducing audiences to lesser-known repertoire, and regularly programmes music by women composers and composers of colour. She also performs her own works, and has given world and European premieres of works by Lainie Fefferman, Olivia Jones, Shara Lunon and Tara Creme, among others. Her interdisciplinary collaborations include projects  with visual artists Jordan Söderberg Mills and Amale Freiha Khlat, choreographer Claudia Schreier, and filmmaker Patrick Hamm.

Kamilla is a graduate of Yale University and the Royal Northern College of Music, and an alumna of  the International Musicians’ Seminar at Prussia Cove, the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme, the London Masterclasses and the International Contemporary Ensemble’s Ensemble Evolution. She is currently pursuing a PhD  in Musicology at New York University. Her most recent publication is for Women & Music: A Journal of Gender & Culture and she looks forward to a publication co-written by musicologist Suzanne Cusick in Cambridge University Press in 2026. 

Kamilla Arku raises funds for her own charity, Music for Liberia, which supports education in Liberia.

Jordan Söderberg Mills

Jordan Söderberg Mills is a Canadian visual artist working in installation, sculpture, and design objects. His work explores ideas of identity, perception and the sublime, playing with the borders between physical and digital realities, and pushing the material possibilities of light. Through a research-based practice in optics and material science, he examines the nature of colour and transforms perception through works in glass, light and projection. 

Jordan Söderberg Mills was born in Ancaster, Ontario, and studied at Trinity College at the University of Toronto followed by Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago, Chile. He apprenticed with Chilean artist and master blacksmith Francisco Gazitua and holds a Master’s Degree from Central Saint Martins in London, UK. He has developed projects for the Victoria and Albert, Tate Britain, Art Gallery of Ontario and Design Museum Gent, and has collaborated with brands such as Adidas, Emaar Properties and BMW Mini Cooper. He has public art projects standing in Dubai, Brussels, London and Berlin. He won Wallpaper* Magazine’s Best in Glass and currently resides in Germany.