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“Man gaaer først saa gruelig meget ondt igjennem” or You go through so much pain at first, wrote Handd Christian Andersen in his autobiography from 1855, My Fairy Tale. We know what he meant.
Our company, Parnassos.dk, saw the light of day in February 2020, made an agreement with the Danish equivalent to The Guardian, Politiken Plus, to create four classical music concerts in the autumn of that year in the newspaper’s large hall, Trykkeriet, on Rådhuspladsen. A few weeks later, the Corona virus shut down the world.
January 2022, Covid has taken on a more withdrawn role and Parnassos.dk is on the verge of offering our first trip, centered around a big party on New Year’s Eve 2022/23, which was to take place in … Moscow! A few weeks later, Putin launched his war against Ukraine – and since then none of us have felt like visiting Russia.
Third time lucky. We have now held a number of, we think, quite successful trips, all of which point in the direction of our vision.
To create classical music concerts in musical historical settings. So far, we have held concerts in the Mozart Haus and Schubert’s home, both in Vienna, and Haydn’s workplace at the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt.
Likewise, in Clara and Robert Schumann’s home in Leipzig, where we listened to Robert’s composition of one of Hans Christian Andersen’s poems, in the exact same room where our great poet was on Monday, July 22, 1844, and attended the premiere of the music piece.
Our goal is to alternate between the type of trips we offer now and – depending on what our customer base allows us – weekend trips abroad, where we arrange concerts with internationally recognized musicians.
All our trips are structured as cultural celebrations. Therefore, no concert without a dinner party.
We have music historical attestation for this. For example, when the aforementioned concert in Schumann’s home in 1844 was over, Hans Christian and Robert got wasted, while during the night they agreed to write an opera together. Unfortunately, nothing much came out of it, except a rude hangover for our two gentlemen.
The above is our vision. Minus the hangover.
Welcome to Parnassos’ gallery of personal guides. Here you can read about who is behind our guests’ future cultural experiences.
Erik Bach Christophersen, founder of Parnassos.dk, was born in Helsingør, Hamlet’s town, under Holger Danske’s guidence. Probably.
He has lived most of his adult life in London, his career in the British publishing industry.
Some of you reading these lines will remember The Piccadilly Book Club. A book club aimed at Danes and Swedes respectively, which he managed from London.
He has been editor of the Financial Times Book Club, as well as editor at Gyldendal, the preeminent and largest publishing house in Denmark. He has worked for the internet bookstore Saxo.com, the Danish equivalent to Amazon as well as director of Saxo S.A.R.L in Luxembourg.
You can read the following portrait in this article from the Danish online media Point of View ↗ (From the summer of 2020 – when we all thought that the Corona crises was behind us – and before Russia would actually attack its neighbor. In Danish only, sorry!).
We organize eight annual cultural events. Erik will be joining all of them.
Poul Arnedal ↗ is a journalist with a very long career behind him. He is a portrait editor at the Danish POV and a writer.
When we are together in Rome we drink Grappa, in London it is Gin & Tonic. Every drink its geography. The undersigned has known Poul for almost three decades. He is at home in the Roman squares and streets (and taverns!) and he knows everything and everyone in both London and Rome.
We had long thought about arranging a trip to Rome that, to use an English expression ‘will blow the socks off’ our guests. The trip took place between the 16th and 20th February 2024 and was, if we may say so, very successful.
We have launched another one. From the 28th of February – 4th of March 2025, where Cicciolina will be our host Saturday the 1st of March. You can read about the new Rome trip here.
And we are also more than ready to welcome you in London during Easter 2025. Between the 18th and 22nd of April. You can read about the trip to London here.
And finally, Poul and I have a trip ready to Nordsjælland or North Zealand between the 11th – 14th of August 2025, appealing to both a Danish and English audience. You can read about the journey to our shores here.
Photo of Poul Arnedal, summer 2024 in Tisvildeleje, in connection with a full-page interview in Berlingske Tidende.
The first autumn trip of the year 2025, takes us to Saxony, with the city Leipzig as our focal point.
Leipzig is one of the centers of classical music in Europe and Johann Sebastian Bach worked here for most of his career. We arranged a trip here in September 2024, and we will repeat this in 2025.
We have rented the Bach museum’s Summer Hall for a private concert. But the primary reason for our extended weekend stay in Leipzig is undoubtedly the afternoon and evening at Porsche’s factory on October 9th.
Erik Bach Christophersen is our main guide. Furthermore, Leipzig’s official tourist association provides a guide for us during our stay. You can read more about the trip here.
The official logo of the Leipzig Tourist Association, which we collaborate with.
Gerti Schmidt, together with Erik Bach Christophersen, are the main guides when we are on tour in Vienna. Gerti is the chairman of the board of Vienna’s official tourist organization and thereby director of as many as 35 professional groups in the capital, all dealing with everything concerning leisure activities and experiences – both for the Viennese themselves and tourists like us.
There isn’t a corner of Vienna (and Austria) she doesn’t know, and not a palace that doesn’t roll out the red carpet for her.
Parnassos.dk organizes an annual trip to Vienna, the first was held in October 2022, then October 2023, and the latest trip in October 2024. A new trip for October 2025 is in the works and will be announced at the end of January 2025.
With Gerti at the helm, we ensure that we always offer a stay for our guests that is considerably out of the ordinary. Parnassos.dk is a member of The Vienna Experts Club as well and collaborates with the Austrian Tourist Board in Denmark.
Gerti Schmidt. Director of the Austrian Tourist Board.
The official logo of the Austrian Tourist Organization in Copenhagen, whom we collaborate with.
Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen is Denmark’s leading Islam expert and professor at the University of Copenhagen. He lived in Cairo in the 1980s and has been a very frequent visitor since then.
He was with us during all seven days during our November trips in 2023 and 2024. We aim to have another trip ready to Egypt’s capital in November 2025. This will be announced in February 2025.
Professor and leading Islam expert Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen. Our guide in Cairo november 2023
It was with pleasure and no small amount of pride that Professor Arto Belekdanian took us under his wings for two of the days of both trips our trips to Cairo.
Arto is of Egyptian-Armenian origin. He is Dr. Phil. in Oriental Studies in Egyptology and educated at Oxford University. He has been an editor of National Geographic and is the BBC’s expert adviser on all things Pharaonic.
Furthermore, and not least, he works for the Ministry of Antiquity in Cairo, who issues permits to visit mausoleums, temples and the like, normally closed to the public. It would not be in Parnassos.dk’s DNA not to make maximum use of that opportunity. He will also be with us during our trip in 2025.
Yasmine El Dorghamy, assistant professor of the American University in Cairo. She gives us a lecture as well as guiding us through the large new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), where we find, among other treasures, the pharaonic mummies last (or latest) resting place.
Her specialty is textiles from Egypt’s earliest days to the present. She is a fantastic and charismatic communicator. You’ll have 5000 years of Egyptian history seen through the clothing of the population.
Yasmine el Dorghamy, assistant professor at the American University in Cairo.
Claes Raben is from Odense in Denmark – Hans Christian Andersen’s town – has lived in Cairo since the early 1990s. He is married to an Egyptian woman and has one of the most extensive networks imaginable in Egypt’s capital. He was a good friend of my late brother, Bent Bach Christophersen, who lived in Cairo for a full three decades of his life.
With Claes, we have almost unlimited access to the city’s activities. He has lived in elegant Garden City and now lives in elegant El Dokki.
Claes will be with us most days and will make sure everything runs smoothly. Or… as frictionless as possible. Cairo is not a quiet residential street.
Claes Raben at 3al genena rood terrace. Egypt has just scored in a football match – everyone is in a celebrity mood, as you can see.
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